Last week The National reported that a 29-year-old Macedonian woman, a tourist visiting Dubai, was sentenced to two months in jail. She was arrested in January for attempting to steal lingerie, perfume and lipstick from the Victoria’s Secret store at Mall of the Emirates. She admitted the charges, but in her defence she claimed that she didn’t know why she shoplifted. "I have money, but I steal," she told her prosecutors.
The UAE is home to some of the world’s largest shopping malls; it also has one of the highest per-capita retail shopping centre densities in the world. It makes sense, in this context, to understand why people shoplift. Globally, billions of dollars are lost each year to shoplifting. So understanding its causes and consequences and trying to find cures are good for business.
In the case of the tourist, we might never know, for sure, why she decided to stuff her handbag with goodies from Victoria’s Secret. More generally, however, psychology and those concerned with consumer misbehaviour have advanced many ideas about why some people shoplift.
Crime researcher Mary Owen Cameron conducted the first definitive study on shoplifting at a department store in the 1960s. Based on her findings she proposed the simplistic, but useful "Booster and Snitch" classification. Boosters, comprising about 10 per cent of shoplifters, were said to steal for financial gain, generally operating within criminal subcultures and selling their ill-gotten gains. Snitches – the rest – by contrast, were viewed as pilferers, tending not to resell stolen items and possessing none of the Booster's criminality.
Terrence Shulman, a reformed shoplifter who went on to practise law, presents a more fine-grained taxonomy of shoplifting, including seven distinct categories. One, the addictive-compulsive shoplifter, is a person who steals in response to emotional distress. Number two on Mr Shulman's list is the professional who steals for financial gain. At number three we have those motivated by economic need. Four, the thrill seeker. Five, the drug addict. Six is the cognitively impaired. And number seven, and perhaps the most controversial of all, is the kleptomaniac.
In 1816 the Swiss physician, Andre Matthey, first described kleptomania as "a unique madness characterised by the tendency to steal without motive and necessity". Since then, however, kleptomania's status as a legitimate psychiatric illness has been hotly contested, not only within psychiatry but also within the criminal justice system. The earliest case studies of kleptomania describe it as an irresistible impulse to steal items of no obvious economic benefit. In fact, the stolen items were often just discarded after the theft. These early cases also suggested that the problem was far more common in women, especially those of the highest socioeconomic status. One early case involved female members of Europe's aristocracy.
Our current psychiatric illness manual, the DSM-5, includes kleptomania within the category of disruptive, impulse-control and conduct disorders, describing it as a recurrent failure to resist impulses to steal items that are of little use or monetary value to the individual.
The cause of this disorder is unknown, although there are many theories — from neurochemical imbalances to unfulfilled sexuality. Some theorists have even implicated department store atmospherics, that is the in-store displays and fragrances are so bewilderingly intoxicating that they unhinge the vulnerable. That, however, sounds like blaming the victim: the irresistibly wicked shop made me steal from it.
The American Psychiatric Association conservatively estimates that kleptomania accounts for about 5 per cent of shoplifters. If we can offer people help for this impulsive behaviour — cognitive therapy works — we could save millions of dollars in lost retail earnings annually. More importantly, we could prevent individuals experiencing the shameful, punitive and life-altering consequences associated with being convicted of theft.
Dr Justin Thomas is an associate professor at Zayed University
On Twitter: @DrJustinThomas