To me it looked like she was stealing because it was the easiest solution – she has some brains and she managed to get it all together and got a job – I know it’s a bit more complex than that, but the point is – if you looked at things from HER point of view, she’d be asking herself: why didn’t I do it before? It would be a combination of shame and low self esteem, in her eyes this would be a terrible mothering example, especially that she DID end up in prison, no matter the circumstances – if she was lucky and got away, that didn’t mean that what she was doing wasn’t worth a prison sentence. And I guess that’s how she sees it, especially now that she grew up, became more sensible and ‘good’, the past surely looks grimmer than it actually was. It really doesn’t help that her parents are the great heroes of FTL, she doesn’t even know that Snow White herself used to steal to get by too.