Shoplifting in Small Stores: A Qualitative Case Study in Perth, Western Australia (original) (raw)
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Despite increased expenditure on traditional approaches to the management and control of retail crime, it continues to increase globally at an exponential rate leading to calls from academics and practitioners alike to explore alternative avenues of retail crime prevention. Focussing on the role of psychological ownership, this study offers empirically generated insights into how employee based, non-technological factors may be developed to prevent and/or deter retail crime through employee intervention behaviours. Adopting a phenomenological approach, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 employees across two supermarkets. Findings suggest positive relationships between employees and employers may evoke feelings of possessiveness and psychological ownership towards their place of work among employees. This may have implications on employee propensity to intervene when witnessing deviant in-store customer behaviour. Consequently, retailers should consider identifying and strengthening factors that evoke psychological ownership amongst their employees. 2. Literature review An examination of the extant literature on retail crime reveals much of the focus to be on the perpetrators, their motivations and behaviours. Such research has produced a plethora of models and concepts including frameworks such as CRAVED (Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable, Disposable) model (Clarke and Webb, 1999) and the opportunity-motivation-justification model (Del Bosco and Misani, 2011). Deterrents such as surveillance and security guards are viewed as primary barriers to the perpetration of retail crime (Hagberg et al.
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When Consumer Behavior Goes Bad: An Investigation of Adolescent Shoplifting
Journal of Consumer Research, 1990
Shoplifting is a troubling and widespread aspect of consumer behavior, particularly among adolescents, yet it has attracted little attention from consumer researchers. This article reports and interprets findings on the pervasiveness of shoplifting among adolescents, the characteristics that distinguish adolescent shoplifters from their nonshoplifting peers, and adolescents' views regarding the reasons for this behavior. Our findings contradict some popular stereotypes concerning the typical shoplifter and suggest some rethinking about adolescents' reasons for shoplifting. S hoplifting is one of the most troubling and least understood aspects of consumer behavior. Individual acts of consumer theft may be viewed as minor, "sporadic pilfering" (Cameron 1964), but their aggregate impact is enormous. Retailers lose an average (at retail) of about 2 percent of their sales to merchandise shortages, about 40 percent of which are attributed to shoplifting (i.e., the theft of merchandise, during store hours, by someone who is shopping or pretending to shop; Baumer and Rosenbaum 1984). Given total U.S. retail sales of$1.45 trillion (Berman and Evans 1989), this would imply that American consumers steal about 11.6billioninmerchandiseayear−morethan,forexample,theypurchasefromdirectsalescompanies(Peterson,Albaum,andRidgway1989).Thecostsofshopliftingarealsobornebyhonestconsumers.Storesoftenincreasetheirpricestocoveranticipatedmerchandise"shrinkage,"creatingwhatonewritercalls"ahiddentaxof11.6 billion in merchandise a year-more than, for example, they purchase from direct sales companies (Peterson, Albaum, and Ridgway 1989). The costs of shoplifting are also borne by honest consumers. Stores often increase their prices to cover anticipated merchandise "shrinkage," creating what one writer calls "a hidden tax of 11.6billioninmerchandiseayear−morethan,forexample,theypurchasefromdirectsalescompanies(Peterson,Albaum,andRidgway1989).Thecostsofshopliftingarealsobornebyhonestconsumers.Storesoftenincreasetheirpricestocoveranticipatedmerchandise"shrinkage,"creatingwhatonewritercalls"ahiddentaxof 15 0 [per year] on each family in the United States" (Wilkes 1978). In addition, consumers must endure the delays and intrusions brought on by the locks, tags, and surveillance that now pervade the retail market place. At first glance, the shoplifting phenomenon might seem a more appropriate topic for criminologists than for consumer researchers. However, shoplifting is not
The Link between Shoplifting and Burglary
British Journal of Criminology, 2005
This research note forms part of a larger set of findings from a study that examined disposal patterns of stolen goods. Literature linking shop theft and burglary, as part of an overall criminal career, has been lacking. Results regarding the role that shop theft plays in the criminal careers of prolific, persistent burglars are presented. This article shows that shop theft plays an instrumental role in offending patterns of prolific burglars, thus challenging the notion that shoplifting is a less serious crime than burglary. Given the findings presented here, an argument is made that by detecting more shop thefts, crime-reduction initiatives might also increase their detections for burglary.
European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2021
This paper established prevalence of the characteristics in the shoplifting crimes and determined the supermarket operators’ perception of the effects of shoplifting crimes on society. The study was guided by three objectives: to establish offender characteristics of the shoplifting crimes, to establish prevalence of the characteristics in the shoplifting crimes and to determine the supermarket operators’ perception of the effects of shoplifting crimes on society. The study was guided by Rational Choice and the Routine Activity Theories. The study used a census sampling technique with a sample size of a hundred respondents. These included 90 junior employees of Tuskys, Uchumi and Naivas Supermarkets, 3 branch managers, 3 police officers within the area of the study and 4 officials of the Nairobi Supermarkets Association. Interview schedule was used to collect data. Data collected was organized, summarized and interpreted thematically by use of graphs, frequency tables, and percentag...