A psychologist said that humans were 100% nature, and 100% nurture. That is, it is impossible to separate nature from nurture in humans as the two are so closely intertwined as to be inseparable. However, there is a widespread belief that there are inviolate "essential" behaviours in people that are not modified by nurture.
"Once a thief, always a thief" would be one of them. If someone were found to have the propensity to steal, no amount of reformation anywhere would change that. Yet there is the allegation that people "can change" and there is a fear that religious indoctrination can change peoples' essential natures.
All this just seems to be a judgement of convenience. It is easier to say that a criminal is always capable of criminal acts than it is to say that I just don't like him 'coz he stole money before. Doing so would appeal to peoples' "common sense" that some things are inbred and cannot be changed. Of course, such "inbred" behaviours can be changed by negative things like violent extremist religious indoctrination.
If this internalized belief of many people were to be lent any weight, it can be surmised that it is the essential nature of people to be evil or violent or destructive. That's because even "good" people are believed to be able to become corrupted criminals, yet "bad" people will never turn over a new leaf.
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