Originally Posted by Escapee

I remember a brother of my long tern GF's friend, he started off with petty crime. ie: stealing clothes of garden lines and sweets in shops. I said it would escalate and he should get a good hammering to teach him a lesson. He progressed to robbing houses and eventually mugging pensioners.

One day he was robbing a house and ended up having a bloody good kicking, he quickly changed to the straight and narrow because he really thought the home owner was going to kill him. He is now married with a kid, and admits he learnt from the lesson because he didn't want it to happen again.

He said it became a way of life and an addiction, he didn't really need the stuff he stole but it was a habit.