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Shoplifting (also known as shop theft, shop fraud, retail theft, or retail fraud) is the theft of goods from a retail establishment during business hours. The terms shoplifting and shoplifter are not usually defined in law, and generally fall under larceny. In the retail industry, the word shrinkage (or shrink) is used to refer to merchandise often lost by shoplifting. The term five-finger discount is an euphemism for shoplifting, humorously referencing stolen items taken "at no cost" with the five fingers.
The first documented shoplifting started to take place in 16th century London. By the early 19th century, shoplifting was believed to be primarily a female activity. In the 1960s, shoplifting began to be redefined again, this time as a political act. Researchers divide shoplifters into two categories: boosters (professionals who resell what they steal), and snitches (amateurs who steal for their personal use). Shoplifters range from amateurs acting on impulse to career criminals who habitually engage in shoplifting as a form of income. Career criminals may use several individuals to shoplift, with some participants distracting store employees while another participant steals items. Amateurs typically steal products for personal use, while career criminals generally steal items to resell them on the black market. Other forms of shoplifting include swapping price labels of different items, return fraud, or consuming food and drink at a grocery store without paying for it. Commonly shoplifted items are those with a high price in proportion to their size, such as disposable razor blades, electronic devices, vitamins, alcoholic beverages, and cigarettes.
Stores use a number of strategies to reduce shoplifting, including storing small, expensive items in locked glass cases; chaining or otherwise attaching items (particularly expensive ones) to shelves or clothes racks; attaching magnetic or radio sensors or dyepacks to items; installing curved mirrors mounted above shelves or CCTV, hiring plainclothes and , and banning the bringing in of backpacks or other bags. Large stores may offer storage of bags at a customer service desk in the front, with the customer handed a number tag or other identifier to be given back in exchange for their bag when they leave the store. Some stores have security guards at the exit, who search backpacks and bags and check receipts. Stores also combat shoplifting by training employees how to detect potential shoplifters.
Generally, criminal theft involves taking possession of property illegally. In self-service shops, customers are allowed by the property owner to take physical possession of the property by holding or moving it. This leaves areas of ambiguity that could criminalize some people for simple mistakes, such as accidentally putting a small item in a pocket or forgetting to pay. For this reason penalties for shoplifting are often lower than those for general theft. Few jurisdictions have specific shoplifting legislation with which to differentiate it from other forms of theft, so reduced penalties are usually at a judge's discretion. Most retailers are aware of the serious consequences of making a false arrest, and will only attempt to apprehend a person if their guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt. Depending on local laws, arrests made by anyone other than law enforcement officers may also be illegal.
In England and Wales, theft is defined as "dishonestly appropriateing property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and "thief" and "steal" shall be construed accordingly." It is one of the most common crimes. Shoplifting peaks between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m., and is lowest from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.Joshua A. N. (Centre for Retail Research) Bamfield (2025). 9780230521605, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230521605 In the United States, shoplifting increases during the Christmas season, and arrest rates increase during spring break. Rutgers University criminologist Ronald V. Clarke says shoplifters steal "hot products" that are "CRAVED", an acronym he created that stands for "concealable, removable, available, valuable, enjoyable, and disposable".
In the late 17th century, London shopkeepers began to display goods in ways designed to attract shoppers, such as in window displays and glass cases. This made the goods more accessible for shoppers to handle and examine, which historians say led to an acceleration of shoplifting.
The word shoplift (then, shop-lift) first appeared at the end of the 17th century in books like The Ladies Dictionary, which, as well as describing shoplifting, provided tips on losing weight and styling hair. Female shoplifters of this period were also called "Amazons" or "roaring girl". Notorious female shoplifters in London included Mary Frith, the pickpocket and fence also known as Moll Cutpurse, pickpocket Moll King, Sarah McCabe whose shoplifting career spanned twenty years, and Maria Carlston (also known as Mary Blacke), whose life was documented by diarist Samuel Pepys, who was eventually executed for theft, and who for years shoplifted clothing and household linens in London with one or more female accomplices.
In 1699, the English Parliament passed The Shoplifting Act, part of the Bloody Code that punished petty crimes with death. People convicted of shoplifting items worth more than five shillings would be Hanging in London's Tyburn Tree (known as the "Tyburn jig") with crowds of thousands watching, or would be transported to the North American colonies or to Botany Bay in Australia. Some merchants found The Shoplifting Act overly severe, jurors often deliberately under-valued the cost of items stolen so convicted shoplifters would escape death, and reformist lawyers advocated for the Act's repeal, but The Shoplifting Act was supported by powerful people such as Lord Ellenborough, who characterized penal transportation as "a summer airing to a milder climate" and the archbishop of Canterbury, who believed that strong punishment was necessary to prevent a dramatic increase in crime. As England began to embrace Enlightenment ideas about crime and punishment in the 18th century, opposition to the Bloody Code began to grow. The last English execution for shoplifting was carried out in 1822, and in 1832 the House of Lords reclassified shoplifting as a non-capital crime.
By the early 19th century, shoplifting was believed to be primarily a female activity, and doctors began to redefine some shoplifting as what Swiss people doctor André Matthey had then newly christened "klopemania" (kleptomania), from the Greek words " kleptein" (stealing) and " mania" (insanity). Kleptomania was primarily attributed to wealthy and middle-class women, and in 1896 was criticized by anarchist Emma Goldman as a way for the rich to excuse their own class from punishment, while continuing to punish the poor for the same acts.
In the 1960s, shoplifting began to be redefined again, this time as a political act. In his 1970 book , American activist Jerry Rubin wrote "All money represents theft...shoplifting gets you high. Don't buy. Steal," and in The Anarchist Cookbook, published in 1971, American author William Powell offered tips for how to shoplift. In his 1971 book Steal This Book, American activist Abbie Hoffman offered tips on how to shoplift and argued that shoplifting is anti-corporate. In her book The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting, social historian Rachel Shteir described how shoplifting from companies disliked by individuals is considered by some activist groups, such as some Freeganism, decentralized anarchist collective CrimethInc, the Spanish anarchist collective Yomango and the Canadian magazine Adbusters, to be a morally defensible act of corporate sabotage.Jerry Rubin; introduction by Eldridge Cleaver; designed by Quentin Fiore; yipped by Jim Retherford; zapped by Nancy Kurshan (1970). 9780671206017, Ballantine books. . ISBN 9780671206017William Powell. With a prefatory note on anarchism today by P. M. Bergman (2025). 9780962303203, Ozark Press. ISBN 9780962303203
Many stores instruct employees other than those directly involved in theft prevention or security to confront someone only verbally to avoid any possibility of being held liable for injury or unwarranted detention. While that may allow stolen goods to not be recovered, the loss of revenue may be judged to be acceptable in light of the cost of a potential lawsuit or an employee being injured by a fleeing shoplifter.
Regional gangs and international crime organizations may create and coordinate shoplifting rings. These rings may involve multiple shoplifters, diversions, and the complicity of employees in a targeted business. Some shoplifting rings focus on stealing items included on lists provided by the criminal leaders. Some organized theft groups engage in labor trafficking, smuggling undocumented individuals into a country and then requiring them to steal in order to pay off fees and debts associated with their being smuggled across the border.
Researchers have found that the decision to shoplift is associated with pro-shoplifting attitudes, social factors, opportunities for shoplifting and the perception that the shoplifter is unlikely to be caught. Researchers say that shoplifters justify their shoplifting through a variety of personal narratives, such as believing they are making up for having been victimized, that they are unfairly being denied things they deserve, or that the retailers they steal from are untrustworthy or immoral. Sociologists call these narratives neutralizations, meaning mechanisms people use to silence values within themselves that would otherwise prevent them from carrying out a particular act.
Developmental psychologists believe that children under the age of nine shoplift to test boundaries, and that tweens and teenagers shoplift mainly for excitement or the thrill, are "acting out" (or depressed), or are being pressured by their peers.
Retailers report that shoplifting has a significant effect on their bottom line, stating that about 0.6% of all inventory disappears to shoplifters. According to the 2012 National Retail Security Survey, shoplifting costs American retailers approximately $14B annually. 2012 National Retail Security Survey In 2001, it was claimed that shoplifting cost US retailers $25 million a day. Observers believe that industry shoplifting numbers are over half employee theft or fraud and the rest by patrons. Of course, if apprehended during the shoplifting the merchandise is generally recovered by the retailers and there is often no loss to the store owner when the merchandise is surrendered to the store by the suspects. In addition, in many states retailers have the right to recover civil damages to cover the cost of providing security.
According to a December 23, 2008, article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Dimperio's Market, the only full-service grocery store in the Hazelwood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, closed because of shoplifters. Thieves cause Hazelwood grocery to give up, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 23, 2008 Walgreens reported that it closed 10 stores in the San Francisco area between 2019 and 2020, primarily due to a surge in theft.
In mid-October of 2021, Walgreens announced the closure of five stores in San Francisco due to an increase in retail theft in San Francisco.
But there are also differences in shoplifting among different countries that reflect those countries' general consumption habits and preferences. In Milan, saffron, an expensive component of risotto, is frequently shoplifted, and throughout Italy, parmigiano reggiano is often stolen from supermarkets. In Spain, jamón ibérico is a frequent target. In France, the anise-flavoured liqueur Ricard Pastis is frequently stolen, and in Japan, experts believe that manga comics, electronic games and whisky are most frequently stolen. Bookstores and magazine sellers in Japan have also complained about what they call "digital shoplifting", which refers to the photographing of material in-store for later reading. Packaged cheese has been the most frequently shoplifted item in Norway, with thieves selling it afterwards to pizza parlours and fast food restaurants.
In the United States, store employees who detain suspects outside of and inside the store premises are generally granted limited powers of arrest by state law, and have the power to initiate criminal arrests or civil sanctions, or both, depending upon the policy of the retailer and the state statutes governing Civil recovery for shoplifting as reconciled with the criminal laws of the jurisdiction.See, e.g., subsection (f)(1) of the (Permitting a retail employee to detain a suspected shoplifter for a reasonable amount of time.)
Many stores will use public-view monitors in the store to show people there that they are being recorded. That is intended as a deterrent to shoplifting. Some stores use inexpensive dummy cameras. Even though these fake cameras cannot record images, their presence may deter shoplifting.
Some tags are stuck onto merchandise with glue (rather than being superimposed on) the shoplifter can easily scrape off the tag in their pocket. Pedestal EAS covers, which are made of durable vinyl, offer cost-effective means of adding a marketing tool at every entrance to a store; they are also custom-manufactured to fit any pedestal and can be printed to highlight specific brands or seasonal promotions. They do not interfere with the performance of the EAS systems and are easily cleaned or changed. Some shoplifters may employ Radio jamming devices to prevent EAS tags from triggering, or magnets to remove the tags. Stores may employ technology to detect jammers and magnets.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an anti-employee-theft and anti-shoplifting technology used in retailers such as Walmart, which already heavily use RFID technology for inventory purposes. If a product with an active RFID tag passes the exit scanners at a Walmart outlet, not only does it set off an alarm, but it also tells security personnel exactly what product to look for in the shopper's cart.[3] RFID and Walmart
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