The mistreatment or injustice one suffers never justifies the harm he or she does to other innocent people. This should be the principle by which we judge the violence that has taken place in recent weeks.

In the latest incident, a 41-year-old man hacked three people to death and injured another three in the city of Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, on Monday. Last week in Beijing, a 2-year-old girl died in hospital after a man snatched her from her stroller and threw her on the ground during a row with her mother.

In Hailun city, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, a resident at a nursing home for the elderly set fire to the facility on Friday, killing 11 people, because he suspected someone had stolen his money.

Such incidents have given rise to a public discussion about why people choose to vent their anger in such extreme ways.

The media's reporting of such incidents and the online discussions that follow have added to the worries they cause to the public, as they give the impression that such violence is on the rise.

But there is no evidence to support this or the suggestion that people in China have developed a greater propensity to resort to violence.

However, it is still necessary to take these incidents seriously, those who vent their anger by taking innocent lives must be brought to justice. Which should serve as a reminder that justice should never be sought with violence no matter how justifiable it seems.

Similar recent cases of fatal violence have been attributed to the perpetrators suffering from mental health problems. But this is not always the case. It is imperative to analyze each incident to find out why people have become violent.

If an offender is indeed mentally ill and cannot exercise self-control, reasons need to be identified why they were not in proper care. If it is indeed an injustice that has led to a violent act, the departments concerned may need to mend their ways.

No society can be free of such incidents no matter how well it is administrated. But striving for equality and fairness in our society will definitely help eliminate the sense of frustration, which has been a contributing factor in many of these tragedies.

(China Daily USA 07/30/2013 page11)