Theivery comes in many different guises and takes many different names: embezzlement, fraud, larceny, grand larceny and petty theft, to name a few. The reasons for theft involve many complicated factors such as joblessness, desperation and hunger.
Recent statistics and surveys show that shoplifting incidents increased in the past eighteen months.
Shoplifting spikes
A report in Forbes citing several sources says that shoplifting is on the rise, at least for portions of 2020, in many cities across the U.S. Many of these cases seem fueled by people trying to make ends meet. Some evidence indicates that theft of food and nutrition for children accounts for some of the rises in shoplifting.
Historical information shows that shoplifting increases during times of high unemployment and challenging economic conditions. Retail theft also saw rapid increases in certain areas of the country.
Shoplifting numbers
A number of misconceptions follow common ideas about who shoplifts and why. Bluewater Credit offers a number of revealing statistics about the practice of shoplifting. The first surprise is that more people engage in shoplifting than expected; one report puts the number at 27 million Americans. About 2 million people get caught shoplifting every year.
Men and women shoplift at about equal rates. Only about 25% of shoplifters are children, while the rest are adults. The majority of shoplifters fall into the 35-54-year-old cohort. In many cases, shoplifting seems to deal less with financial matters than with psychological factors as many perpetrators don’t have much need for the stolen items. Even so, the condition is known as kleptomania only afflicts about 5% of shoplifters.