Is the Shoplifting "Crisis" Over? | Hacker News Reader

Is the Shoplifting "Crisis" Over?

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19 pointspaulpauper19 comments

There’s certainly something to be said for the fact that shoplifting has entered the Overton window in the last few years. I see on tiktok probably weekly videos of people suggesting that shoplifting is not very serious, how to nick things at self checkout, how stealing from faceless corporations is hardly stealing at all…

I feel like as a whole people are more likely now than in the recent past to see their relationship with corporations as being adversarial and this is just one facet. It is hard to blame anyone for feeling this way, as consumers and employees are becoming more disempowered. Additionally, the shopping experience has become much less personal. It is hard to justify stealing from a shop where the owner goes to your church and knows your dad. But with a multinational company where you can’t even get a real person on the phone, maybe that feels different for some people.

I’m not saying I agree, but the more people who think companies are “evil”, the more types of disobedience will be seen as reasonable.

the mind blowing fact is that for any significant percentage of people taking something that is not yours, can be justified by anything. That is not western culture, saying that as someone born in ussr, where stealing from government has never been considered stealing, which to this day the reason for all the corruption and low level of trust on every level of communication.

> saying that as someone born in ussr, where stealing from government has never been considered stealing

Reading this and realising how much of an understatement that is in fact! It's so much an understatement that in USSR lexicon the word stealing in regards to government property was nit in fact used, ever.

There was never a shoplifting crisis. Shifting consumer behaviors, changes in social behavior, and other boring (normal) things have affected business and public perceptions on the subject. For businesses there's good motivation for falling back on crime surges to cover for closing less successful stores or less than expect quarterly earning reports. For the public a group of teens running amok in pedmall is easy footage and engages viewers.

* Brookings offers a really clear report for US consumers: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/retail-theft-in-us-cities... * The Conversation offers really quick list with lots of links for support summarizing the UK version: https://theconversation.com/whats-the-truth-behind-the-shopl...

It's alarming to see these market-focused outlets fall for this type of "news" hook, line, and sinker -- there's not a mention of the possibility there was never a shrinkage crisis. The Brookings report was popular and I might have even come across it here.

If you're seeing retail theft on your TikTok FYP, then you need to evaluate what kinds of other videos you're interacting with. Granted, I don't know the numbers, but it's not a wave so virulent that it is inescapable. Like so many other things if you're fired up about what the youth are doing and morally affronted -- you're likely setting yourself up to look like a fool.

I found it really annoying to have so many things moved to locked cases. Now they have a slightly better scheme where you can open the case but it causes an alarm to sound briefly.

One thing I've noticed at shopping centers is that they seem to have made it harder to enter and exit, and there is also increased police and security presence.

Shoplifting has allways been a sign of a failure of society to provide people with hope for a future in compliance with social expectations.

Crime will allways exist at some level, but a "shoplifting crisis" would not be something solved with more secure shops.

"X has always been a sign of Y"

Pretty arbitrary assertion.

Maybe shoplifting is a sign of what you say it is.

Could also be a sign of breakdown in law and order because property crime is increasingly ignored, and so people do it because they know they won't get punished.

"breakdown in law and order"

I think we have different fundamental assumptions about what motivates people. "Threat of being punished" isn't a healthy motivator for a society.

Just as biological parasites exploit their hosts without reciprocating, free riders in society take advantage of resources without contributing back. This behavior, if left unchecked, places a burden on those who do contribute.

A society that fails to address stealing is like an organism unable to fight off a parasite. It may function for a while, but the harm eventually becomes too great. This is why well-designed disincentives for antisocial behavior are crucial for maintaining long-term societal health.

Members of society are not external organisms, they are the cells that make up the organism that is society itself. The most effective ways in which organisms fight these issues - take cancer for example - is to prevent the issue to bring with, not to supercharge the immune system against itself. Much like an immune system too eager to go after it's own cells can cause autoimmune disease, fighting antisocial behaviour primarily through repression leads to societal ruin.

Some qualifiers would be helpful to engage with you. Certainly threat of punishment shouldn’t be the only motivator in a healthy society, but it probably needs to be one.

"Threat of being punished" isn't a healthy motivator for a society.

And certainty that you won't be punished is?

Ask the rich and powerful how it affects their behavior

Exactly, and you want to democratize that approach? Nobody, rich or poor, is ever held responsible for anything?

Well, you know, we all want to change the world...

The increase in theft isn't a matter of not providing hope, but rather that the internet has made it far easier to fence stolen merchandise.

You didn't know any middle class high school kids who took "five-finger discounts"?

What was the appropriate solution to that problem?

Homelessness is higher than ever, it probably contributes a little to this

I heard an interesting rationalization that retail theft to support one's opiate addiction is less harmful than other (possibly more violent) crimes.

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