Shoplifting Problems In N.Z. And U.K. Similar

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30823, 7 August 1965, Page 16

Shoplifting Problems In N.Z. And U.K. Similar

•‘The Press’* Special Service

AUCKLAND, August 6.

Shop owners and storekeepers have not yet found the answer to the filching of their goods by a section of the public that regards merchandise to be theirs for the taking.

They also say that for some reason peculiar to human nature the incidence of shoplifting rises with the increased affluence of society in general. Anyone concerned with shoplifters in their journey from shop counter to Court says the majority are welldressed with money in their purses or pockets. The majority, too, are women, who outnumber men shoppers by about 10 to one. Many are of middle age. The woman shoplifter was recently the subject of an investigation by a women’s club in an English town.

The club’s conclusions coincide more or less with the opinions of an Auckland magistrate. Mr M. C. Astley, Sergeant E. F. Bennett, of the women’s division of the Auckland police, social workers and store managers and detectives. Sheer greed is the motiv iting force for 90 per cent of the filchers, the greed being encouraged by advertising which suggests that “if you have not got it you are just not with it.” Modern display methods turn compulsive buying into compulsive taking. The lack of any moral code is bolstered by the attitude of the era—“ What’s yours is mine.” Impatience caused by gossiping assistants in shops

sometimes results in a frustrated customer walking off with goods that she had been quite willing to pay for five or ten minutes previously. Examples set by husbands and fathers by bringing home “perks,” some not justified: “swindle sheets” and income tax evasion.

Gambling their housekeeping allowance on bingo and fruit machines by English women has little counterpart in New Zealand. One Auckland store detective said heavy hire purchase commitments could be a contributing factor for some. Emotional Upsets Another reason for theft from shops not mentioned by the English investigators is that some women ia middleage undergo emotional upsets caused by physiological disturbances. Some of these cases are genuine; other women falsely try tc use this physiological reason as their defence. “A rise in material prosperity has resulted in a decline in moral responsibility,” Mr Astley said. “Women shoplifters vary from those with genuinely disturbed personalities (not a large number) to the straightout cold-blooded professional or the weaknatured married woman who is not given as much housekeeping money as she would like.” As far as penalties went, Mr Astley aid, sometimes the Courts tried to save children from their mother’s disgrace by ordering suppression of name. Where there were no mitigating circumstances it was best to impose a fairly salutary fine and allow publication of the name. It was very rare, he said, for a woman of middle age to be seen in Court on a second charge of shoplifting. Sergeant Bennett said she agreed wholeheartedly with the English conclusion that gossiping shop assistants contributed to the incidence of shoplifting. Many shops and stores seem to take the attitude that shoplifting is always with us. Some employ detectives; some arrange lectures and films to help their staff to detect shoplifters. Quick Result One such staff instruction course had quick results. Seven minutes after a lecture a shop assistant caught somebody in the act of stealing. In most cases shop managers or detectives do their own screening and inquiries before deciding whether or not to call in the police. A spokesman for one large city store said shoplifting was a particularly mean offence as it was a direct charge against people who paid for their goods. Losses through theft might have to be absorbed when costing merchandise. Retailers accepted shoplifting when they altered their layouts to the open type of display, said an Auckland social worker. It was a calculated risk for which they had to make allowance. "I would like a shilling,” she said, “for every woman who said, ‘lt seemed so easy’.”