According to media reports, in 2023 the UK experienced an unprecedented wave of shoplifting. The theory goes that the cost of living crisis and poor police responses are driving a crime wave. Is that really true? Here, we assess six of the most popular assertions made about shoplifting in 2023. Are they myth or reality?
1. Is there really a shoplifting epidemic?
- Many crime types remain below pre-pandemic levels because we now work from home more than we used to.
- That provided camouflage for shoplifting, so it returned to, and now exceeds, pre-pandemic levels.
- In the first six months of 2023, shoplifting reported to police averaged 7% above the pre-pandemic expected level.
2. Has the cost-of-living crisis driven people to theft?
- It has become common to blame the cost-of-living crisis for rises in shoplifting.
- Shoplifting by dependent drug users, for example, is not due to the cost-of-living crisis.
- That explanation, put forward by the retailers themselves, contradicts the idea that increased shoplifting is due to cost-of-living issues.
3. Are organised gangs to blame?
- Another version of events is more plausible – that organised gangs are the problem.
- E-fencing via online marketplaces is more efficient and less risky than face-to-face in the street or pub.
- We need more evidence, but organised crime offers a plausible explanation for increased post-pandemic shoplifting.
4. Have the police stopped caring?
- This reflects a long history of problem shops draining police resources with repeat calls without taking responsibility for preventing thefts.
- After all, is it fair to expect taxpayers, who pay for police, to foot the bill?
- Pointing the finger at the police deflects some of the blame but it doesn’t address the real problem.
5. Are shops starting to lock up products because of theft increases?
- The truth is that these have been among the most stolen products for many years and tagging has been around for ages.
- It is part of a decades-long process of incremental improvements to retail security.
- By 2010, research identified 30 measures used to help shops prevent theft, including locking cabinets and adding radio frequency tagging to goods, tethering items or using dummy goods such as packaging with nothing in it.
- Improved vehicle and household security reduced car crime and burglary by three-quarters since 1992, largely via non-punitive and unobtrusive measures.
6. Are social media provocateurs to blame?
- Social media videos that glorify shoplifting and show how to do it may be part of the picture.
- Flash mobs have been coordinated on social media, as when hundreds of youths met to rob London’s Oxford Street stores.
- Social media platforms are best placed and have the technical know-how to develop measures to stop videos from spreading and to make them less attractive to make and watch.
What is to be done?
- But we know that, with concerted effort, it is possible to prevent shoplifting.
- Online eCommerce platforms are best placed to prevent e-fencing, and social media platforms best placed to disrupt provocateurs.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
