Whodunit or whydunnit?

I came across an interesting description of crime fiction yesterday.  Most crime we see is about murder, and for most writers the focus of the story is on finding out why the victim was killed.

For a long time I never saw myself as a crime writer.  Bad things happened to my characters, but they rarely died on the page .  Now I've grown more comfortable with the idea that a story can be crime even if the murders appear off-stage

When I analyse Panthera : Death Spiral, I realise it is a classic whydunit.  Someone is killing kingcat cubs, taking away their thymus gland cells, and the question is why someone would do that.  Answering that question leads me to the who.  In Eyemind, someone is using artworks for bad purposes, and again it is only when Keri discovers the who that she finds out why.

Focusing on the why allows me to write a story with little violence in it, something that is important for me, and allows me to be comfortable being described as a crime writer.