I do think the self defence laws especially in relation to property need relaxing a bit.

sure it might mean scum in the short term become more tooled up, but for some petty scum thieves it might be enough to put them off ie the juice isnt worth the squeeze.

I think it would work quite well for the teen burglars and joy riders. After all most of them are doing it for kicks and a bit of dollar. Getting thier head stoved in with a baseball bat probably doesnt come into thier mind. I imagine if one got a fucking good hiding when trying to rob someones stuff, then they might think its not so fun any more.....

Sure you will always have a select few who have no reservations about violence in committing their crimes and there will be some who react to being beaten with the "how dare that cunt stop me stealing his stuff" type attitude.