Maybe I'm not understanding your objection clearly, but what they wrote was "...prevent people from pursuing a hate-filled, violent life or convincing them to a

Maybe I'm not understanding your objection clearly, but what they wrote was "...prevent people from pursuing a hate-filled, violent life or convincing them to abandon such a life" I think this is pretty careful sentence structure on their part to suggest that it's normal people who enter into such a life, not that they are at their core hate filled and violent. The section seems to agree with what you're suggestion, and maybe it's just awkwardly worded, but as a native speaker, to me it sounds like the usual deescalation tactic of affirming the goodness in people. "Life" may be causing some misunderstanding or changing the scope slightly, but it still fits.