(Motivations for Violent Crime among Incarcerated Adults: A Consideration of Reinforcement Processes) This means that before any individual has to commit violence, he has to move into his mental state for being able to commit violence. It does not happen without warning. This is true even for individuals who are normally violent. Only when a person is mentally unstable, he can flash into violence, but then that sort of person is likely to be in a mental ward. Sometimes it can be even argued that when an individual puts a weapon in his pocket, he has a desire to commit violence. Even they may have some mental restrictions against committing violence, and this causes some to alcohol. Drinking is a very common excuse for becoming violent. The next question is in their approach. For muggers and some others the regular procedure is to approach the victim for apparently getting some information or small item. During the entire talk that is going on he evaluates the awareness of the victim about his intentions and the victim's readiness for his own defense. Another set gets into a hot interview where they are talking normally in one minute and then immediately getting into an emotional blitzkrieg. For a defense against this strategy, the victim has to be able to deal with high emotional violence and not react in a stunned and confused manner. If the victim is able to show a desire to get into extreme violence, the attacker may give up his move to attack. (Five Stages of Violent Crime)

Another group of persons test the victim by increasing his level of emotional violence and noting the reaction from the victim. If the attacker is not forced to come down in arguments, then he keeps increasing the decibels of noise. Ultimately he gets into a violent attack. Sometimes the criminal puts himself in a position to keep observing the victim, and in these situations the talk may not even come till the attack takes place. The following may take place even keeping out of sight and then suddenly he can make the victim aware of his presence. If the victim shows...

This can be judged by the way the person is moving, and when he moves into a position where he is able to attack, one can be certain that there are criminal intentions. This is the technique of committing many robberies and rapes where only some threats or display of violence are shown for the victim to cooperate with the assailant. There may also be display of weapons. The end result to the victim depends on the whim of the criminal. He may even decide to shoot the person without any provocation. (Five Stages of Violent Crime)
Thus it is clear that criminal violence often takes place due to the mental processes within the mind of the criminal. There is no understanding of the process that their minds follow, as most of them have a mind which is interested in such acts. There are no outside social processes which can affect their minds, except psychological treatment.