Crime and PunishmentThe old woman was merely a sickness it wasn't a human being I killed, it was a principle! Translated by Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky 'The old woman was merely a sickness it wasn't a human being I killed, it was a principle!' A troubled young man commits the perfect crime the murder of a vile pawnbroker whom no one will miss. Raskolnikov is desperate for money, but convinces himself that his motive for the murder is to benefit mankind. So