POLICE FOUNDATION

RESEARCH BRIEF

Arresting juvenile shoplifters can help deter future criminal activity.

Despite millions of dollars spent by retailers each year on surveillance and enforcement devices to deter theft, shoplifting continues to be a major crime problem.

Store security personnel detect as many as two million shoplifting cases per year, but many are not reported to the police. And of the almost 400,000 shoplifters detained and turned over to the police annually, the vast majority are not arrested partly because shoplifters often are not tried and sentenced.

A store’s shoplifting policy is influenced largely by the cost of following an arrest through prosecution. Many stores are wary about the civil liability consequences of detaining but not fully prosecuting a shoplifter. Some companies feel that simply handcuffing, detaining, and questioning suspects is enough to deter shoplifters. Others have full arrest policies. But very little has been known about what works to deter shoplifting and what doesn’t.

• those caught by store security personnel and turned over to the police for arrest; and
• those caught by store security personnel but released from the store without arrest.

Each case was then followed for six months to determine what effect arrest or release had on subsequent criminal behavior.

Researchers found that the shoplifters who were arrested were neither more nor less likely as a group to commit future shoplifting offenses than were those who had been detained by store security personnel and released. The arrest rate for both groups over the six month period was about 10 percent.

But arrest did have a significant deterrent effect on one important group–juveniles. Of the 253 juveniles apprehended and turned over to the police for arrest, only four percent were rearrested for crimes other than shoplifting during the following six months. Of the 315 not turned over to the police, 10 percent were rearrested for crimes other than shoplifting.

These findings challenge traditional assumptions that young people are more likely to repeat their criminal behavior than older people. In fact, the findings suggest that shoplifters under the age of 17 who are arrested are less than half as likely to repeat their behavior as those over age 17.

Because findings may have been influenced by the jurisdiction’s policies on dealing with shoplifters, it is not wise to generalize them. But in light of the finding that arrest did have a significant deterrent effect on juveniles, companies should consider applying arrest sanctions more selectively. Stores in jurisdictions where adult shoplifters are treated leniently might consider imposing their own in-store procedures rigorously within the law (detention, handcuffing, questioning, etc.) rather than arresting suspects.

In fact, the company in this study used these findings to adopt a selective arrest policy for shoplifting. It believes this policy has helped cut its shoplifting rate by over 10 percent with subsequent savings more than covering the $200,000 cost of the study.

The security profession clearly needs more information on official law enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing policies for shoplifting. In addition, more research is needed on how different classes of shoplifters respond to different sanctions. The costs associated with shoplifting are high and continue to rise. In the end, customers and retailers alike pay the price.