NCJ Number
76099
Date Published
1980
Length
183 pages
Annotation
The president of Shoplifters Anonymous discusses the motivations and attitudes of shoplifters, the conditions conducive to consumer theft, and the general lenience of public reactions to it. A plan involving the cooperation of merchants, consumers, and the criminal justice system is proposed to combat shoplifting.
Abstract
The four-part plan first calls for merchants to institute preventive procedures such as surveying their premises for blind spots and removing valuable items from those areas. Next, business and retail organizations should undertake to heighten public officials' awareness of the economic hazard that consumer theft represents to both public and private sectors. The focus of this educational effort should be on judges, district attorneys, police personnel and workers in juvenile justice. The third part of the plan provides for Shoplifters Anonymous to assist criminal justice systems in setting up special programs for shoplifters. The fourth part prescribes a consumer education effort to be pursued in schools and the mass media by antishoplifting community organizations. In essence, the plan aims at influencing attitudes; its parts are listed by priority but they can be undertaken simultaneously. In addition, the book outlines details of the Shoplifters Anonymous program and forecasts shoplifting trends for the 1960's that predict a substantial increase in the volume of stolen merchandise. The historical review of shoplifting traces the problem to the development of self-service stores and to merchants' 'warn and release' practices that let shoplifters off without formal penalty and encourage continued stealing. The question of why people shoplift is examined through case histories and quotations from interviews with people who steal merchandise from stores. The analysis of their motivations provides the basis for suggested preventive measures in merchandising techniques and store security as well as in the basic approach of the Shoplifters Anonymous program. The appendix includes extensive quotations from shoplifters, and statistics on the demographics of shoplifters and the amounts of business losses. Extensive acknowledgements, an index, and a roster for distribution of the book from one reader to another are supplied.