When confronted with the wrongdoing committed, perpetrators either respond with outright denial (“I didn’t do it!”) or offer excuses, such as insisting on the impossibility of having done otherwise (“I couldn’t help it!”), or explaining away the evil of what they have done (“She asked for it!”). At times apologies even transmute perpetrators into victims (Vetlesen 1994, 256): it is the perpetrator who is defending himself and protecting his vital interests against the clever, cruel, and malicious aggressor (“He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing”; “I am a sheep in wolf’s clothing”).
