If one of my children were a three-time thief, I'd be the one to throw the key away. However, I like to think I raised them better than to steal from others.
Your attitude is why we have so many criminals out there with rap sheets a mile long. When they are not punished for their actions, they commit their crimes over and over again.
It has nothing to do with the "little" laws on the books either. Stealing is still stealing. It's one of the 10 Commandments. People who make a career of stealing from others should not be out on the street.
Then you must blame the Bible for why there are so many criminals out there with rap sheets, a mile long. It is clear, if you’re a Bible believing Christian, that punishments must not be out of proportion to the offense and that we should be working to bring people back into society, who have served their sentence fully.
That does not mean I don’t believe in punishment. Punishment is part of the justice system, but it needs to be properly proportioned with the offense. So, in the event of a theft, the person convicted would have to return what he stole from the person or the amount that he stole, even if he had to spend the rest of his life working towards that objective.
Make no mistake, if an offense should mean the life of the convicted because the offense he caused is absolutely impossible to make up for, I will pull the switch myself. But that does not mean I believe in continually amping up the punishment for the same offense, until the perp “finally” learns to not offend. Punishment only justice systems rarely work out to eliminate crime in totality.