From wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colton_Harris-Moore
Quote:
Colton A. Harris-Moore grew up in his mother's house in Camano Island, Washington.[5] Neighbors said they made several calls to Child Protective Services, believing Colton was neglected or abused.[5] His father Gordon Moore used drugs and was imprisoned while Colton was a toddler.[2] When Colton was about two years old, his abusive father walked out after attempting to choke him during an argument at a family barbecue.[6] According to his mother, Pam Kohler, his stepfather died when he was about seven years old, and from the time Colton was in the first grade, she knew there was "something off about him" – "sort of a disconnection". He wouldn't listen to his teachers, started altercations at school, and would sometimes deliberately break things around the house, Kohler said.[7] According to a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Harris-Moore said that his mother drank and became mean, breaking his possessions.[2] He started living in the wild at the age of seven, and would break into vacation homes in the area, stealing blankets, food and water before disappearing into the forest for days.[7] His first conviction for stolen property came at age 12, and by the time he was 13, he had three more. Each conviction brought a 10-day stay in a detention center, or community service. His mother once said, "Every time he had anything any good, everyone thought he stole it. What does that do to a kid?"[8] In 2003, police found a neighbor's camcorder in his home. Never before sentenced to more than a month,[5] he fled a three-year sentence by walking out of a halfway house in April 2008.[9]
That's probably why. It's empathy so they are excusing him because he had a messed up childhood so he stole to survive. I was going to say "because they're stupid, people are nasty creatures" but I did some research and found that.
But yet when people rape a child or kill someone despite having a messed up childhood, people don't excuse them and they want the person to be thrown behind bars and suffer. Ironic isn't it?