In the days when you could be hanged for stealing a small amount of goods, there were several ways of viewing such harsh penalties.The first was that hanging could not possibly deter somebody who lived in absolute poverty as theft gave a chance of life with just a risk of death, whereas death through the poverty was perhaps inevitable. A justifiable risk, then.
No. It was only the people who had something to lose who could be deterred - and clearly they were. It is only under such extreme circumstances that it may be reasonably argued that 'only the poor generally hang'.
A second point is that in those severe days even the very worst of mothers impressed upon their children the consequences of their actions; the dangers of the gallows. I wonder how many mothers from the anti-social underclass of today encourage their offspring not to steal - or worse - as the consequences are so terrible?
