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Wow, a lot of good answers here @maddiejay and @r-m-archer! 🙂 I liked some of the specific examples you guys gave from your own stories. It’s going to be hard to add something people haven’t already said now.

How do we write highly engaging criminals without endorsing their criminal activity?
As you guys said, clearly portraying their actions as having consequences and not treating them as if they aren’t sinful people. In a lot of movies we are supposed to forgive the characters for doing bad things because they’re funny or really clever, or maybe they are actually doing it for the right reasons. But they are still sinning and that leads to consequences even if they do the wrong thing for the right reasons. The world portrays these people in a way that seems to think we should admire these criminals. Just look how cool, sneaky, and clever this thief is, she is prepared for everything!
But we aren’t the world, we are called to a higher standard, and higher morals. And that is something that should show in our writing even when our criminal characters aren’t saved. The way we weave the story around them should show that we are and that we do not approve of what they are doing.

Can one write a criminal character just for the purposes of the plot without going into the work of showing that their criminal activity is a bad thing?
No, I think that would be seen as bad story telling. If I’m going to add any character to the story, then I have to do the work of seeing how they realistically fit into the story, and I think that includes realistically showing how their actions affect the story and have consequences.

What are the clichés of criminal characters?
Well I can think of two no one has mentioned yet. 🙂 Portraying them as pure evil instead of actually fleshing them out as a character. Or on the other end, portraying them as overly smooth and charismatic.

What’s are some of the best reasons to include a criminal in a story? What do they bring to the table that makes them unique?
Perhaps a sort of cautionary tale, this is what you don’t do and this is why. I’ve never really liked this kind of story, but they do have a lot to offer. I’m actually working on one now, the MC runs into two criminals. One is a woman that allowed herself to be talked into committing a crime and has carried the guilt of her action ever since. She’s torn between feeling the need to confess her guilt and to bury it. Her shame isolates her, cuts her off from people. She tries to atone for it but knows she can’t and is haunted by what she’s done. Feeling guilty she feels like other people are judging her, even though they can’t know what she did. This makes her defensive and angry. She believed the lie that if she committed this crime it would set her free, instead it trapped her in this vicious cycle. There are only two ways out of this cycle, death or asking God’s forgiveness.
These will be the two choices she is faced with. This is something I wouldn’t have been able to explore if my character hadn’t been a criminal. The shame of one’ actions and how it affects us.