Shoplifting and Its Effect on Society

Shoplifting and its effect on society. Shoplifting seems like a victimless crime, but the damages caused are far from minor. I myself was recently caught shoplifting, and now I need to pay for the consequences of my crime. There are many reasons why people shoplift, it can be a obsessive compulsion disorder (OCD) all the way to a dare from a friend, either way Shoplifting does not only affect the individual, but it also affects the community, the retailer, and the consumer.
Shoplifting affects not only me but my family as well. I feel embarrassed and worthless yet if I felt like that. “Why did I do it in the first place? ” Because shoplifting is tempting, the shoplifter thinks they’re getting the product for free. But the truth is that someone has to pay for our mistake, thus price rises and the community has to pay. And some stores could even go bankrupt because of shoplifting. It is unfair to people who do not shoplift to pay for the mistakes that shoplifters make.
People in the community who are not as wealthy as others have a harder time paying for their food and needs, and when they feel they can’t afford spending too much money at a certain retail store they will have to go to another destination to shop, causing a great inconvience to them and also the retail store will be losing money and might even close down in the future. We also suffer on a personal level, when an employee who realizes an item has been stolen from their store. They often feel violated, and when they feel violated it causes them to lose trust in others.

So store employee follow potential merchants, watching their every move, making potential merchants uneasy and guilty when they are innocent. As there is no ‘look’ of a shoplifter, there is no way to identify whether a person is going to shoplift or not. And thus trust is lost between the merchant and the retailer. Resulting in an uncomfortable environment to shop in. Only about three percent of shoplifters are professionals. The rest of the shoplifters, shoplift as a response to experiencing stress in their personal lives.
I myself am an immigrant from Singapore I just moved to Canada last year and a lot has happened since then. I survived being poor and unsatisfying for a year, so “why did I shoplift? ” part of me believes that it is because I’m poor and I just wanted something, but part of me believes that it also because of what I’m going through a lot of stress and I feel depressed at times. Its like I need to fill up a hole in me. I thought shoplifting would make me feel better but the truth is you will lose all self-confidence in yourself.
You become even more depressed and emotional you start to feel as if you don’t deserve a lot of things, or that others are better than you. Shoplifting has broken up many families and friends, the distrust and the disappointment they have when they look at you will consume you and soon you yourself will change. I was fortunate that my mother was very understanding and offered to help me out of my depression. She did admitted her disappointment in me but she told me I am still a good person.
That made me realized that as a individual we belong to a community, and we make up what the community will become, each of us play a role to become someone bigger than themselves. When someone does well another will also want to do well. We could start by doing community work and volunteering at places that need our help. Helping others can without a doubt make you feel better about yourself, shoplifting will only make that empty feeling deeper as you start to feel guilty and worthless that others are better than you for not shoplifting. You’ll feel like the bad guy.
Nowadays people not only shoplift, but steal and con others of their money this is because people who becomes thieves usually starts as shoplifters at a young age. Shoplifting when young can often lead to becoming thieves and robbers in the future. In fact ninety percent of convicts admitted that they have shoplifted before in their teenage years or younger. Statistics shows that there is an average of twenty-seven million shoplifters in the United States of America alone, which equates to one person in eleven, and only ten million have been caught within the past five years.
Kids make up twenty-five percent of shoplifter; adults, seventy-five percent. People have been doing this for a long time because fifty-five percent of adults claim they began to shoplift as teenagers, and when asked, seventy-three percent of adults and seventy-two percent of juveniles do not plan to shoplift, it just an act of impulse. And also, an astonishing eighty-nine percent of kids say they know of other kids who shoplift and sixty-six percent say they associate with them. And only three percent of shoplifters are professionals, but they make up 10 percent of the item they sell.
Some even after being caught in the act, fifty-seven percent of adults and thirty-three percent of juveniles say it is difficult to stop even after being caught. Habits are hard to break, shoplifting becomes an addiction and you try to stop but you just can’t. And when you reach that point statistics show that habitual shoplifters steal at least two times a week. So when I got caught on my first time I’m grateful for it, for without it I might have become addicted to shoplifting or worse wanted to make it my professional career. Shoplifting is illegal and is a punishable crime by law.
It is not a small crime whether you stole fifty dollars worth of items or ten dollars worth of items. The crime is the same you have shoplifted from the store, and stolen something that doesn’t belong to you. For example, you can be arrested and paraded through a store in handcuffs, banned from stores or malls, and you may even end up with a criminal record. If you get a criminal record especially when you are young people will treat you like an ex-convict, it’ll be harder to get a job, get into college, or anything else that need a criminal background check. Which is mostly everything.
Shoplifting can ruin your life but remember even without getting caught can shoplifting also ruin your life, as I have already stated that shoplifting affects you emotionally the same thing applies here you lose your self-respect and your respect for others. Small crime doesn’t mean no crime. Responsibilty for your family, friends and the people surrounding you, there are people that look up, like you’re their role model. I myself have siblings and I hope very much they don’t follow in my footsteps; I have never done anything that would cause people to lose their faith and respect in me.
It is my responsibilty to set a good role model for my younger siblings. Also you as an individual have a responsibility as a civilent to be a good role model to the community. Never think that there is no one watching you, there is always someone watching and looking up to you in respect if you’ve done the right things. Respect is something you earn not given. By shoplifting you are openly disrespecting the community and although you may not notice now, but you are also disrespecting yourself. When you shoplift you are disrespecting the community by