Dini did a great Hatter story a few months back. Hatter kept recruiting thugs and giving them Alice in Wonderland theme identities; Batman eventually pieced together that it wasn't subtle enough to be one of Tetch's schemes and that Tetch was actually being mind-controlled by Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee. Batman put in a good word with the police when they were arrested, explaining it wasn't Tetch's fault.
This has been a recurring theme in Dini's run on Detective; there was also an ish where the new Ventriloquist sprung Harley from Arkham against her will, and she (Harley) helped Batman defeat her (new Ventriloquist) out of loyalty to the original Ventriloquist and a distaste at someone else stealing his theme. As with the Hatter story, Batman made sure the authorities knew Harley wasn't to blame for the breakout.
Dini's been great with the whole reform angle; Penguin's not exactly squeaky-clean but he's law-abiding for the most part. Riddler has been the most fun; he's set up his own private detective business and he and Batman sometimes work as allies and sometimes as rivals. (One of my favorite moments features all the great detectives of the DCU hanging out together in a chatroom comparing notes.)
As someone pointed out earlier in the thread, it would be great to see that version of Riddler in the movies, but it wouldn't actually make any sense without establishing him as a criminal first -- he's not really the Riddler if he's not leaving riddles.
Tangent: the most rational explanation for the riddles I've ever seen -- I saw it in Justice but assume it predates it -- is that Nygma's father used to beat the hell out of him when he'd lie, so he developed a compulsion to tell the truth, and always to confess when he'd done something wrong. The riddles are a compromise -- he needs to confess, but he doesn't want to be caught, so he makes the confessions as arcane as he can.
...Should we bother splitting a "Who should be the villain(s) in the next Batman movie?" thread? We're not really talking Dark Knight spoilers here.