He formulates this account primarily by way of an interpretive analysis of interview data. While his interviewees were self-selected, they nonetheless produced a relatively diverse demographic group. Alford was not interested in producing a representative sample. His exercise is hermeneutic rather than sociological. His intent is to extract the semantics and syntax of evil from the speech of informants.
Evil is an experience of dread.
To experience evil is to experience being abandoned, being helpless, and being made to suffer. To do evil, it follows, is not simply to physically harm someone without sufficient cause. To do evil is to harm someone's soul. This is the sort of harm that comes not simply from suffering but from needless suffering, from meaningless victimization. To do evil is to make it more difficult, or impossible, for someone else to love.