Crime Perceptions in a Natural Setting by Expert and Novice Shoplifters (original) (raw)
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‘Thinking thief’ in the crime prevention arms race: Lessons learned from shoplifters
Security Journal, 2017
Retailers invest considerable sums of money in security measures designed to prevent shoplifting. However, little is known about shoplifters' perceptions of anti-shoplifting security measures or shoplifters' techniques for outmaneuvering them. Building on Ekblom's recommendation to 'think thief' to disengage from the crime prevention arms race, our data consist of in-depth interviews with active shoplifters who simulated shoplifting at two national retail stores while wearing an eye-tracking device. Shoplifters in the present study describe their perceptions of the deterrence potential of specific security measures and the various counter-moves employed to successfully steal merchandise. Implications for 'thinking thief' in the retail environment are discussed.
American business review, 2022
Despite the seriousness of shoplifting, consumers' evaluations, judgements, and intentions toward shoplifting remain underexplored by scholars from business ethics, marketing, retailing, and consumer behavior. We propose a new shoplifting ethics model, which integrates Hunt and Vitell's theory of ethics with Nadeau, Rochlen, and Tyminski's typology of shoplifting, by incorporating the moderators of consumers' personal characteristics (i.e., age, gender, marital status, income) and shoplifting motives (i.e., social, experiential, economic, emotional) onto the relationships among deontological evaluation, teleological evaluation, ethical judgment, and intention. Based on a two-by-two randomized experimental design, two shoplifting cases (i.e., swapping price tags, stealing products) are investigated in four scenarios (i.e., deontologically unethical condition with positive consequences, deontologically unethical condition with negative consequences, deontologically ethical condition with positive consequences, deontologically ethical condition with negative consequences). We discover that age, marriage, and income enhance the relationship between consumers' deontological evaluations of shoplifting and ethical judgments of shoplifting; that employment strengthens the relationship between the ethical judgments of shoplifting and shoplifting intentions; and that marriage enhances the relationship between consumers' teleological evaluations of shoplifting and shoplifting intentions. Nevertheless, the economic factor weakens the relationship between consumers' deontological evaluations of shoplifting and ethical judgments of shoplifting. We find that ethical judgments of shoplifting mediates the relationship between consumers' deontological/teleological evaluations of shoplifting and shoplifting intentions. The results imply that younger, single, unemployed, and low-income consumers engage in more shoplifting activities compared to their older, married, employed, and high-income counterparts. Moreover, even though acknowledging the inherent wrongness of shoplifting and its negative consequences, consumers can still be impelled by economic reasons to participate in shoplifting. We contribute to the ongoing debate on whether economic reasons change consumers' ethical judgments of shoplifting and whether economic disadvantage motivates consumers to shoplift. Contrary to conventional wisdom, negative consequences and punishment do not fully deter consumers from shoplifting. Under the contingencies of personal characteristics and shoplifting motives, shoplifting intention is influenced directly by ethical judgment and indirectly by deontological and teleological evaluations. Theoretical and practical insights are discussed to help policy makers and store managers prevent shoplifting behavior.
Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2013
Gaining the offender perspective is central to understanding domestic burglary, and is well documented. This paper presents findings from 30 semi-structured interviews with convicted domestic burglars conducted in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom. The findings support the dominant supposition that domestic burglars operate within a bounded rationality, broadly calculating reward and risk in the commission of their offences. In addition, it was found that a sense of abstracted morality impacted on decision-making. Burglars used cognitive 'codes of practice' which influenced target appraisal, shaped modus operandi, guided the search process, and impacted on items stolen. The findings suggest that the role of neutralization techniques and morality should be (re)incorporated into the understanding of domestic burglars as rational offenders. 1
The Psychology of Shoplifting: Development of a New Typology for Repeated Shoplifting
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 2019
Despite the damaging effects of shoplifting on individuals, the current literature offers little guidance for changing shoplifting behavior. One limitation in this area of research has been the failure to use empirically and theoretically sound methodologies to identify individuals’ diverse characteristics and motivations. The present study addressed these limitations by developing an empirically and theoretically supported typology of the varied individuals who shoplift. Participants included 202 community individuals who reported repeated shoplifting and provided information about their shoplifting behavior, motivations, mental health, ethical attitudes, personal histories, and life circumstances. Cluster analyses revealed that the sample could be divided into six discrete groups. These clusters comprise a typology of shoplifting, including Loss-Reactive (28% of the sample), Impulsive (20%), Depressed (18%), Hobbyist (18%), Addictive–Compulsive (9%), and Economically Disadvantaged...
1998
Criminal sanctions are usually public, stable and predictable. In contrast, the practices governing the determination of the probability of detection and conviction reinforce uncertainty. We invoke psychological insights to illustrate that criminals prefer a scheme in which the size of the sentence is uncertain while the probability of detection and conviction is certain. Consequently, the choice to increase certainty with respect to the size of the sentence and to decrease certainty with respect to the probability of detection and conviction can be justified on the grounds that such a scheme is disfavored by criminals and consequently has better deterrent effects.
NUDGE; DON’T JUDGE: USING NUDGE THEORY TO DETER SHOPLIFTERS
2015
Crimes defined as “acts attracting legal punishment” are injurious to the community because they violate moral rules (Blackburn, 1993). However, not all crimes are deemed worthy of a custodial sentence. For example, the criminal act of shoplifting usually only results in jail time for repeated offences (Doughty, 2006). And research indicates that the threat of imprisonment may not be an effective deterrent for potential shoplifters (Gonnerman, 2004). The notion that shoplifting is detached from the victim (Wilkes, 1978, Ecenbarger, 1988) and common to all socioeconomic classes affords the perception that shoplifting is a “victimless crime” to many. In this paper we suggest an alternative approach to tackling the problem. We examine whether deterrents engaging ‘nudge theory’ (Thaler and Sunstein, 2008) can discourage shoplifting. We review ‘design against crime’ literature and compare case studies to explore a new approach to preventing crime, using nudge as a theoretical framework. Our paper discusses how ‘rationality’ may influence criminal behaviour; that individuals indulge a “moment” of rational thinking before acting and how contemporary ‘design against crime’ techniques manipulate this thought-process to deter criminal behaviour. We argue that ‘nudge theory’ provides an interesting antithesis. To design against shoplifting using the theory of “nudge” we assert that people make choices non-rationally and can be deterred from situational crimes by designing environments with different contextual cues (Bonell et al., 2011) that deter crime. We call upon the design research community to discuss; debate and design with nudge theory as a preventative approach to shoplifting.
Effects of moral cognitions and consumer emotions on shoplifting intentions
Psychology and Marketing, 1996
Empirical results verify the notion that emotions are important in explaining the aberrant consumer act of shoplifting. Age appears to moderate the relative effect of beliefs and emotions in a shoplifting scenario. Although adult consumers' moral beliefs provide more explanatory power in their shoplifting decision calculus, emotions are more important in explaining adolescent shoplifting behavior. Specifically, adults' behavioral intentions to shoplift are affected by their moral beliefs, with attitude toward the act of shoplifting serving as a partial mediator of these effects. College-aged respondents are largely influenced by beliefs concerning the moral equity of shoplifting. In contrast, both beliefs and emotions influence adolescents significantly, with emotions, specifically fear and power, having a greater impact. 01996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Street Robbery Patterns: A Mixed Method Test of Situational Action Theory and Crime Pattern Theory
2020
According to current scholarship on offender decision making, choosing to rob another is based on a variety of individual and situational characteristics. Explanatory models often invoked within environmental criminology include routine activity, rational choice and crime pattern theories. Situational action theory's suggestion that this decision depends, at least in part, on the interaction between offender criminal propensity and the setting's moral context has yet to be examined. This investigation tests this idea by conducting structured interviews with active probationers and parolees centered on their decoding of streetscapes to clarify offenders' perceptions of street robbery opportunities (Part I). These results inform an agent-based simulation contrasting the merits of assumptions made in the previously stated theories to learn how well each generates realistic concentrations of street robbery (Part II). Support emerges for both environmental criminology and sit...