I would suggest that on the contrary, it suggests a useful point of intervention. A great deal of crime descends from poverty. If you don't like crime, you could focus on it being about the individuals committing the crime, or you could focus on fixing the poverty. Doing the former has gotten us the highest proportion of our population in prison in the world, higher than any police state that I am aware of.
I think of myself as a consequentialist. I care about outcomes, and having an understanding of the inputs and the function gives you much better control over the outputs.
I would suggest that on the contrary, it suggests a useful point of intervention. A great deal of crime descends from poverty. If you don't like crime, you could focus on it being about the individuals committing the crime, or you could focus on fixing the poverty. Doing the former has gotten us the highest proportion of our population in prison in the world, higher than any police state that I am aware of.
If you're using it to diagnose or study and not to justify then yes it's an excellent tool.
I think of myself as a consequentialist. I care about outcomes, and having an understanding of the inputs and the function gives you much better control over the outputs.