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Author Topic:   Why Do People Steal?
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 239 of 270 (643633)
12-09-2011 6:40 PM


Some Facts
Attempting to get back on thread:
More than $13 billion worth of goods are stolen from retailers each year. That's more than $35 million per day.
There are approximately 27 million shoplifters (or 1 in 11 people) in our nation today. More than 10 million people have been caught shoplifting in the last five years.
Shoplifting affects more than the offender. It overburdens the police and the courts, adds to a store's security expenses, costs consumers more for goods, costs communities lost dollars in sales taxes and hurts children and families.
Shoplifters steal from all types of stores including department stores, specialty shops, supermarkets, drug stores, discounters, music stores, convenience stores and thrift shops.
There is no profile of a typical shoplifter. Men and women shoplift about equally as often.
Approximately 25 percent of shoplifters are kids, 75 percent are adults. 55 percent of adult shoplifters say they started shoplifting in their teens.
Many shoplifters buy and steal merchandise in the same visit. Shoplifters commonly steal from $2 to $200 per incident depending upon the type of store and item(s) chosen.
Shoplifting is often not a premeditated crime. 73 percent of adult and 72 percent of juvenile shoplifters don't plan to steal in advance.
89 percent of kids say they know other kids who shoplift. 66 percent say they hang out with those kids.
Shoplifters say they are caught an average of only once in every 48 times they steal. They are turned over to the police 50 percent of the time.
Approximately 3 percent of shoplifters are "professionals" who steal solely for resale or profit as a business. These include drug addicts who steal to feed their habit, hardened professionals who steal as a life-style and international shoplifting gangs who steal for profit as a business. "Professional" shoplifters are responsible for 10 percent of the total dollar losses.
The vast majority of shoplifters are "non-professionals" who steal, not out of criminal intent, financial need or greed but as a response to social and personal pressures in their life.
The excitement generated from "getting away with it" produces a chemical reaction resulting in what shoplifters describe as an incredible "rush" or "high" feeling. Many shoplifters will tell you that this high is their "true reward," rather than the merchandise itself.
Drug addicts, who have become addicted to shoplifting, describe shoplifting as equally addicting as drugs.
57 percent of adults and 33 percent of juveniles say it is hard for them to stop shoplifting even after getting caught.
Most non-professional shoplifters don't commit other types of crimes. They'll never steal an ashtray from your house and will return to you a $20 bill you may have dropped. Their criminal activity is restricted to shoplifting and therefore, any rehabilitation program should be "offense-specific" for this crime.
Page not found – NASP
I was surprised to see that drug addict were such a small percentage.

Life, don't talk to me about life.

Replies to this message:
 Message 241 by Phat, posted 08-13-2014 10:15 PM Tangle has not replied

  
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 246 of 270 (818433)
08-28-2017 12:48 PM
Reply to: Message 244 by Phat
08-28-2017 8:17 AM


Re: Revisiting An Old Problem
Most low grade shoplifting - is that just a UK word? - funds drug or alcohol addiction. If they steal food they're generally street homeless too.
Occasionally you'll get organised stealing of small expensive goods - perfumes, electric razors, DVDs - they tend to be more organised, often in teams. Sense of entitlement? maybe. Also a sense if need.

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 244 by Phat, posted 08-28-2017 8:17 AM Phat has seen this message but not replied

  
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 249 of 270 (818440)
08-28-2017 2:00 PM
Reply to: Message 247 by Faith
08-28-2017 1:12 PM


Re: Revisiting An Old Problem
Faith writes:
Gosh I wonder if it has anything to do with treating the Ten Commandments as so much trash?
Not in my experience, generally it's much more earthly - addiction, homelessness, poverty, mental illness and very occasionally the devious and corrupt. In other words sad, mad and bad. All human life is here.

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 247 by Faith, posted 08-28-2017 1:12 PM Faith has not replied

  
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 264 of 270 (828430)
02-17-2018 5:24 PM
Reply to: Message 263 by Phat
02-17-2018 4:21 PM


Re: They All Need Punishment
Phat writes:
For some reason, the widespread acceptance of theft irritates me to the core!
Theft is not widespreadly accepted. Everyone knows that theft is wrong. I watched your videos and it was very obvious that every one of the theives knew they were theiving AND that it was wrong. Otherwise why run away?
But we do do it anyway. Criminologists tell us that crime is normal, whether we ourselves commit crime depends on a lot of social and personal influences; plus opportunity.
Now, why would your god make crime normal?

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 263 by Phat, posted 02-17-2018 4:21 PM Phat has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 265 by Phat, posted 02-18-2018 11:14 AM Tangle has replied

  
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 266 of 270 (828459)
02-18-2018 12:45 PM
Reply to: Message 265 by Phat
02-18-2018 11:14 AM


Re: They All Need Punishment
Phat writes:
The videos confirm my observation based on the subjects in the videos themselves---otherwise normal looking people (no stereotypes) acting out their supposed social and personal influences given the opportunity.
Ordinary people will commit crime. It's inbuilt in us. Whether anyone does is a function of the way they grew up, the morality of the society they live in overall and whether they see the opportunity. In Japan that sort of crime wouldn't happen. I've seen people put a Macbook on a table to reserve it while they went to the toilet. It would be gone in a flash in most Western cities. It's partly cultural.
Almost everybody will pocket a 10 note found on the pavement even though it's technically theft.
What those videos don't show are the thousands of people that didn't steal.
This is what is outrageous in my mind. Otherwise average people, if given the opportunity, will steal to their little dark heart's content!
*Some* 'average people' will steal, most won't.
How I wish that our store cared enough about the losses to prosecute these perps!
If the store owner doesn't care why should you?
I feel as if the loss impacts me personally! Am I wrong to think this way?
You're not wrong to be annoyed by it, but it's not your problem is it?
The bigger question is why did your creator build this behaviour into us?

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 265 by Phat, posted 02-18-2018 11:14 AM Phat has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 267 by NoNukes, posted 02-18-2018 3:33 PM Tangle has replied

  
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 268 of 270 (828464)
02-18-2018 4:03 PM
Reply to: Message 267 by NoNukes
02-18-2018 3:33 PM


Re: They All Need Punishment
NN writes:
Wait, I thought you said that stealing was a cultural thing. Maybe it is not built into us.
No, I said that crime was normal. We're all crimals - even if it's only doing 60mph in a 50. An individual's propensity for crime depends on a lot of variables, culture being only one of them.
Crime, of course, is a man-made concept - what's labelled a crime is also cultural. But there's no society that I'm aware of that doesn't think stealing is a basic wrong.

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 267 by NoNukes, posted 02-18-2018 3:33 PM NoNukes has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 269 by NoNukes, posted 02-18-2018 5:18 PM Tangle has replied

  
Tangle
Member
Posts: 9486
From: UK
Joined: 10-07-2011
Member Rating: 4.5


Message 270 of 270 (828468)
02-18-2018 6:02 PM
Reply to: Message 269 by NoNukes
02-18-2018 5:18 PM


Re: They All Need Punishment
NN writes:
Not so fast. You did say that,
Yes, I've said it several times now and always before I have said any other qualifiers. There is a reason for that and it's because it's normal for people to commit crime. It happens in all culture and in all parts of the world. The propensity for crime is inbuilt in all of us. Ask yourself if that's true.
and then you told a story about folks not stealing a laptop in Japan. You said the reason was cultural.
Yes, stealing is not as big a crime in Japan as it is in, say, the USA. The reason is thought to be cultural. Similarly, gun murder is higher in the USA than in Japan. One reason is cultural.
Whether someone will commit a crime depends on many variables, but the instinct is there in all of us. For people like me, it's very hard to, say, steal from a shop even though I would have loved to at some points in my life, I'd be utterly terrified, but for others it's easy. That's not about me being 'better', it's me being programmed not to do it and maybe also cowardly.
The question that criminologists hate to ask is not why people commit crime but why some people don't.

Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien. I am Mancunian. I am Brum. I am London.I am Finland. Soy Barcelona
"Life, don't talk to me about life" - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 269 by NoNukes, posted 02-18-2018 5:18 PM NoNukes has not replied

  
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