Cruelty
Etymology
From Latin "crudelis" (cruel), rooted in "crudus" (raw, bloody) and "cruor" (spilled blood). The word carries the image of rawness and gore inward — from a bloodied thing to a bloodless hardness of heart.
noun · /KROO-uhl-tee/
The deliberate infliction of pain or suffering on others.
What it names
The act of hurting whether or not the doer enjoys it — the handle for causing harm without the excuse of necessity.
Example
What shocked the jury was not the crime itself but its casual cruelty, the small extra humiliations that served no purpose.
Related idea
Sadism goes a step further than cruelty: the cruel person inflicts suffering, but the sadist takes pleasure in it. One can be cruel from calculation or indifference.