And in recent years, retailers say the episodes are becoming more violent and chaotic. These “boosters” may steal items from multiple stores across state lines. Criminal enterprises recruit people to steal from stores in exchange for drugs or a small payment. Online marketplaces such as Amazon and Facebook Marketplace have enlarged the market for stolen goods. The lobbyists also fear that increasing the value of goods someone must steal before triggering a felony charge - a common reform - similarly encourages thefts. Changes to bail policies make it easier to entice people to steal, the federation argues, because they won’t spend time in jail before trial should they get caught. Part of the issue, they argue, is that the people orchestrating retail crimes are sophisticated, tailoring their tactics to recent criminal justice reforms. Still, the retail federation wants law enforcement’s help. The largest share, roughly two-thirds of missing merchandise, is a result of employee theft, process failures and unknown sources. External theft only represented a portion of overall losses, the survey shows. Steep inflation has upped the price of goods, while the federation’s survey shows that the amount of merchandise disappearing from shelves remained stable between 20. The increase is not necessarily a sign of a worsening problem. ![]() Another lobbying group, the Retail Industry Leaders Association, set the number at $69 billion a year. The federation estimates that stolen merchandise cost retailers $94 billion in 2021, up from $90 billion the year before. To make their case about rising crime, industry leaders have mainly relied on figures from an annual survey conducted by the National Retail Federation, one of the largest retail trade associations in the country. ![]() “But people are still knee-jerk responding with the same tired ideas that we know don’t work.” “It’s like the ’90s all over again, except we have 30 years of evidence that all of that punitiveness doesn’t get us anything,” said Laura Bennett, director of the Center for Just Journalism, a non-profit dedicated to improving journalistic coverage of critical public safety issues. In some states, elected officials have capitalized on the shoplifting uproar in an attempt to roll back recently enacted criminal justice reforms.Ĭritics of the legislative response say that decades of research on crime deterrence makes clear that a harsher approach won’t have the desired effect, and will exacerbate the system’s racial disparities. Many have even created a new category of retail crime in response to the industry’s concerns. In the absence of reliable data, and in response to perceptions of lawlessness, legislators have doubled down on punitive policies. The panic over retail theft offers a real-time look at the making of American crime policy. Even if they had, most police departments do not have a separate category to distinguish retail theft from other kinds of robberies and larceny.Īnd yet, lawmakers in at least 11 states are considering legislation that would more harshly punish people caught stealing from stores with the intent to resell merchandise. Nearly 40% of law enforcement agencies did not report their most recent crime data to the FBI, The Marshall Project reported in June. ![]() But it’s unclear how much worse retail theft has become. Retail lobbyists say this kind of theft is a problem for stores large and small in every state. Under a law amended in Louisiana, for example, anyone caught stealing as part of a group could now face up to seven years in prison. Last year, legislators in California, Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina stiffened penalties for stealing from stores, adding language to target people who act in concert or rob multiple outlets. In a handful of states, lawmakers have reacted swiftly. This article was published in partnership with Slate.
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