In this case, do something minor (stealing) to scratch the itch that, if left unscratched for long enough, could result in doing something major (violence).
It feels like a reaction to societal rules that don't make sense in their experience of the world, and so maybe the itch exists because the rule(s) seem irrational and arbitrary to them.
Or maybe the lack of empathy leaves a hole to be filled with mischief.
I think it is always difficult to analyse why someones does something. In Psychology, behaviour is like a Feynman diagram, you can always rotate the picture and get a valid particle interaction. What is cause and what is effect is hard to tell, but yes some people steal out of a sense of justice if you can call it that.