Should laws be enforced despite a victim's wishes?

[*Nately120*]

(09-15-2015, 12:40 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Another place where this is a big issue is when people steal from their own friends and/or family.  This is VERY common.  In fact most people that steal start out by stealing from the friends and family.  And if they are not prosecuted for those first crimes then they eventually move on to new victims.

I'm familiar with this, unfortunately.  My no good cousin by marriage was living with my aunt and uncle and cousin when my cousin and I were in our 20's or so and my younger cousin was a teenager.  He had stolen from everyone there and my older cousin told me to not leave my wallet lying around.  Meh, basically I told my younger cousin that I wasn't going to just let him steal stuff from me and he should just stick to everyone else if he wanted to avoid an issue.  I never had a problem with him, but he's stolen and/or assaulted many people since then.

It's not my house so I can't throw him out or press charges, but I never directly addressed him, never made eye contact with him, and he tends to find somewhere else to go when I'm there.  I can't make anyone else stand up to him, but I can just point out that taking stuff from, or taking a swing at me is going to be a harder road. Unlike everyone else there I'm just not able to let someone wrong me and then NOT be as petty and vindictive in exacting revenge. Seriously, there is something wrong with me because if I've been wronged first I can become absolutely obsessed with getting even and/or going way overboard.