The authors' main question in this article was, can a wretched upbringing or a traumatic youth be a reason for exempting, be it fully or partially, a person from his criminal behaviour? In their view it indeed can, provided that a number of conditions are fulfilled. First, it must be demonstrated that the person lacks a certain configuration of mental qualities, or in any case that these qualities are developed inadequately. Second, on the basis of available corroborated theories and empirical data it must be made plausible that indeed there are multi-causal relations between the lacking of the mentioned qualities and the horrendous upbringing. If these two conditions are met, it can be assumed that the person in question in any case cannot be held fully accountable for the committed transgressions. To make a reasonable case that a person is not even partially accountable, it must be made plausible too that in the past the person was yet unable to acquire the missing mental qualities. The authors conjecture that a person will be unable to do so if, because of her extreme traumatic youth, even the basic disposition to view herself as an apt target of reactive attitudes has hardly evolved. To effectively conclude whether the person has or has not acquired this basic capacity, a valid diagnostic instrument is indeed indispensable.