Creeping poverty that leaves people unhoused: does it contribute to a so-called shoplifting ‘crisis’ afflicting a number of countries? Or are we primarily looking at crime on the rise? Any answer seems to be confused by national attitudes and how they are reflected in the press. Take the USA for example — a country that seems rather obsessed with crime, which contributes to a dichotomy of perceptions. Either America as a den of hungry thieves, or for some reason possesses a population excessively in need of harsh jailing (highest per-capita in the world). Or both.
CNN, a national news outlet, spends considerable time discussing shoplifting as a crime that is on the decrease nearly everywhere, in spite of perceptions otherwise. It has nothing to say about poverty. Read more: What America’s shoplifting panic is really about
The Christian Science Monitor takes a similarly crime-oriented view, proposing that Seattle has a culture of ‘super-shoplifters’ who can to be targetted to lower retailer’s losses: Shoplifting is on the rise. So are solutions
North of the border in Canada, across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom, and from Australia, there seems to be considerably more concern about poverty. From BNN Bloomberg: Grocery shoplifting on the rise in Canada amid inflation, industry insiders say . . . from euronews: UK businesses call for help as shoplifting problem escalates . . . and from Australia via SBSNews: Sarah steals from supermarkets when she can’t afford to eat. She says it’s justified