What makes a criminal?

One of the men was explaining that he had gotten out and found a job and rented an apartment, and gotten credit cards, and bought a car, and had a new TV, and cell 'phone and video player, and then the floor fell out. He injured his shoulder at work, and the Worker's Comp Board gave him a hard time, and his employer did not have any other work to give him, so he quit; everything started being taken away. So he got frantic, and decided to rob a store to pay his bills, got caught convicted and sentenced. He turned to me and said, "I don't understand you, Bob. Why would you, when you were caught in just as much financial trouble as me, why would you NOT think of committing a crime?" It sort of knocked me back to be asked that. I thought about it before I answered. "I think I DO consider it, but just long enough to realize that it just isn't who I am. The difference between us is that you consider it as a real possibility. For you it is something that would not be life changing. You have accepted that you can do it under the right circumstances, I cannot."
       We then talked about what they can do to reduce the likelihood that they would choose to risk incarceration. They talked about not wanting to let their family down, not being willing to give up living with their kids/wife/parents, not being willing to come back to live in prison again, understanding that they could be considered persistent felons, and the risk of being shot or killed in the process. But they (and I ) avoided the question of morals, of just not doing something because it is wrong to do it.
      What is wrong with talking and teaching the difference between right and wrong? The men and I all know what acts are right and what are wrong. Why do we need deterrence to avoid criminal behavior? Why do we need to threaten and reward ourselves and each other to prevent crime? Both statistics and "talk studies" show that capital punishment doesn't effect the murder rate. The Rockefeller drug laws, which pushed drug possession into the same punishment level as murder did nothing to diminish or even slow the growth of the drug trade and consumption in New York. But we always fall back on punishment and loss as the way to convince ourselves not to commit  a crime. I turned the session into an attempt at answering that. We got lost in the effort.
     Back at home, I went to bed and dreamed about the movie where the artificial intelligence in charge of the US military system asks the men running it, "Shall we play a game?" and runs through all the Mutual Assured Destruction scenarios. The next few days, I tried to chew on it, and then fell into a Bible study group. What does "the fulfillment of the Law" mean? The purity laws of the Torah give people rules of behavior, and ways and means to atone and to clean themselves when they fail. The other parts of the Law prescribe punishments of various kinds, including execution. We humans are used to that. And we are pretty well accepting of the caste concept, the poor becoming criminally suspect, and punishments being unevenly meted out. But we stay with punishment and/ as deterrent.  How does someone live into the fulfillment of the Law not just the following of it?
     What can we do differently? I want to lead the group next time to explore not doing something because and ONLY because it is wrong. I want to talk about doing something because and ONLY because it is right. I want to talk about refusing to accept that having a car and credit cards and a cell phone is so important that someone, anyone might be pulled into doing wrong to get or keep them.
   I'll let you know how it goes......