A new survey may indicate just how many Americans have stolen goods from stores in their lives.
Shockingly, about one-quarter of the adult population admitted to pollsters to having shoplifted at any point in the past. The finance site LendingTree put out a poll and found additionally that about 1 in 20 who took the poll admitted to shoplifting within the past year. That’s five percent of survey respondents.
Matt Schulz of LendingTree, a credit analyst, said shoplifting is a more complicated crime than it seems, and it is motivated by a variety of factors. These can include teenage rebellion; many of us have done things, including petty criminal activity, as teens that we don’t repeat when we fully grow up. And, Schulz said, some people have shoplifted out of real need or desperation. But a certain percentage will do so just for the thrill of getting away with it.
The LendingTree survey is a peak into the minds of the people who took it, but it may indicate the thinking among the population at large. Of course, when people take surveys, they do not always tell the truth. There are many different forms of what’s called “response bias,” when survey-takers give false answers. Some may not want to admit even to themselves that they’ve done something wrong, or they may be motivated to tell the pollster what they think he or she wants to hear.
Bearing that in mind, here are some of the findings from the Lending Tree poll:
- More than 90 percent of shoplifters say they stole because of financial hardship or inflation
- More people will shoplift from large chain stores (52 percent) than they will from small privately owned stores (28 percent)
- Almost half of shoplifters are caught red-handed.
Schulz said his survey indicated that people aren’t primarily stealing luxury goods like designer handbags. Instead, most people stole food or beverages. Interestingly, non-alcoholic drinks were among the items most frequently shoplifted.
Other surveys suggest shoplifting may be more common than what LendingTree found. For example, a recent poll by Express Legal Funding found that 40 percent of respondents admitted to shoplifting.
This form of theft has been a staple of headlines in recent years, as the pandemic saw a breakdown in most forms of prosocial behavior. In addition, California made the news by implementing a policy of not prosecuting shoplifting cases if the goods stolen totaled less than $950.
