But Jim...the theives are probably just some poor misunderstood souls who need love and support. Remember it takes a whole village to raise a child, and their village was most likely busy with the smarter kids at the time.
As a former police officer, my experience was that the majority of "stolen cars" were purposefully traded for dope and then reported as stolen. After that, you have boyfriends that borrowed (with permission) cars for too long, or got caught doing something unsavory causing permission to be revoked. Then you had joyriding teens, that usually "stole" a relative's vehicle, but sometimes a neighbor's. At the bottom of the list you had actual vehicular theft where someone drove off with the intention of depriving the owner of their vehicle.
To be fair, we'd have to execute all of these folks.
I watched a preliminary hearing on a rape case one time, and I was convinced the defendant was guilty. A jogger was pulled into the bushes and raped. She picked a guy out of a photo spread. It turned out, he lived a few blocks away and had a criminal record (no sex crimes though). A search warrant was issued, and they found clothing that matched the victim's detailed description. When he found out the police wanted to talk to him, he left town, and, when finally arrested, he gave an alibi that was easily disproved. The victim picked the guy out of an actual line up. The very next day, the DNA results came back from the State, and it was a different person (with a history of sexual assaults) that raped the woman. He looked very much like the first guy.
It would be pretty damn hard to un-hang the first guy, but there was a time when that was what we did to folks. Texas already executed one guy they now know is innocent, and, last I checked, there was another guy that'll probably be proved innocent.
I'm not against the death penalty, but it's application seems to have a record that's unacceptable.
It may be hard to believe, but some folks actually turn their lives around after they've had a taste of the criminal justice system. This is especially true of juvenile and youthful offenders.
