Does a thief feel remorse ?

[DougH]

For their actions?

Or for getting caught?

[Greg_Cornish]

Depends on the thief. If they quit stealing after they are caught I'd guess yes. If not, nope.

[Bill K]

After contact with hundreds of criminals over a 28 yr law-enforcement, from street beat/traffic/investigation and jail supervision, by far they mostly are only remorseful over being caught. Seems like everytime they hit jail/prison they become born again.. Very few learn, clean up their act and move out of that life style. Bill K

[Guest]

My 18 year old son got caught DUI by the highway patrol about 3 weeks ago and spent 7 hours in jail before daddy went and bailed him out he had never been in trouble with my wife and i or the law and he even call the next day too the highway patrol office and spoke to the officer that arrested him and told him he was very sorry for what he had done. I cant wait till he faces the judge at best he lose his license for a year and ill pay a stiff fine

[blkdog812]

most feel no remorse at all. they are only upset that they got caught this time.
they will all claim remorse at trial time, only in hopes of getting a reduced sentence.
criminals make a lifestyle choice. they play the odds and the odds are they wont get caught.
if they do get caught, it is only for a minor percent of the crimes they actually got away with.

**if you cant do the time, don't do the crime**

[Long Nguyen]

For their actions?

Or for getting caught?

I read your question and the vivid picture of convicted murderer Richard Allen Davis flipping the bird to Polly Klass's family and media cameras leads me to say no.

I'd say career criminals feel no remorse.

[revrat]

I would tend to think that if they felt remorse over their crimes, they would have stopped commiting them on their own, before they got caught.

All the tears and pleas for leniency and apologies do nothing for me after they get caught. Show me a man who steals something, and then brings stolen stuff back to the owner and says, "Hey man, I'm really sorry I took your stuff. Here it is back, and please forgive me". That's a remorseful thief. Some clown telling the judge he's sorry he stole from somebody else? I call BS. He's only sorry he got caught.

[rmbumpus]

In my experience most criminals don't feel remorse, due to the fact they just don't care about anybody but themselves. Experts have done brain scans on criminals and have found that most criminals have a screw loose meaning they are mechanically unable to feel emotions like a normal person. That is one of the reasons we have a "revolving door" criminal justice system. I for one prefer the Rick Clunn method of staking them to an ant hill in the desert.

[Greg_Cornish]

Thinking it over more, I think most often they feel remorse for themselves, not for the victims.