"Yes, he has a long string of theft convictions, cheats at cards, and beats his wife, but I am totally surprised that he defrauded our company for millions of dollars..."
It is not a north american thing, it is a character thing.
I am pretty sure that "beating his wife" is criminal in most countries while "sleeping with someone that is not his wife" is not.
You are doing a lot of work blurring the difference here.
You're substituting different actions. There's no reasonable justification for "beats his wife". "Sleeping with someone who isn't their wife" could have justifications - you don't know anything about their marriage.