Shoplifting: Its Symbolic Motivation*

FABIAN L. ROUKE
Psychology Department, Manhattan College, New York

is estimated that 100,000 thefts a minister lie-detection tests to shop-

IT
week
States,
are committed in the United
with an average loss of about
lifters who had been apprehended.
The purpose of the test was not to
$15 a theft. The value of goods stolen establish guilt, which was already
reaches a yearly total of $75,000,000. admitted, but to check the complete-
In a recent twelve-month period in ness of the subject’s confession and to
New York City twenty-nine stores determine the extent of her past steal-
apprehended 7,000 thieves, some shop- ing.
lifters, the rest dishonest employees.l Before many cases had been handled
However, less than 10 per cent of in this manner, the manager of the
those apprehended can be considered protection division changed his in-
as professional thieves who steal as terest gradually but steadily from
their means of livelihood. Less than &dquo;How much?&dquo; to &dquo;Why?&dquo; Subse-
3 per cent steal for material gain in the quently, when persons were appre-
sense that they take the stolen prop- hended in whom there seemed to be
erty for their own use. The remaining no obvious motive for stealing, such
87 per cent steal because of some emo- as personal use or gain from sale of the
tional difficulty. A study of the rec- article, it was suggested that they con-
ords of those apprehended for shop- sult professional help. Many were re-
lifting shows that one out of every ferred to the author. Because some con-
four is a repeater.2 sidered the visit to the psychologist
Because of this last fact a pilot proj- an alternative to legal prosecution,
ect was undertaken to determine the following routine was established.
whether, in addition to the increased No fee was accepted for the initial
mental and emotional ease of the sub- visit. During this visit, after a sum-
ject, treatment of the offender was mary of the facts and a brief personal
practical in terms of eliminating repe- history were obtained, a plan was out-
tition and thereby cutting future losses lined for the subject. This included a
by approximately one-fourth. thorough psychological examination
The program developed from a with a battery of tests including figure
somewhat unusual source. The author drawing, Rorschach, and the The-
had been called on occasion as a con- matic Apperception Test. The subject
sultant by a New York store to ad- was told that, depending upon the
results of the examination, appropriate
*
Reprinted from The Journal of Social recommendations would be
Therapy, April, 1955. made, with
1
Sargent J. Curtis, Address to Store referral to other sources where indi-
Management Group, National Retail Dry cated. It was stressed that the de-
Goods Association, New York, January,
1953.
cision to return or not was entirely
2 Ibid
. up to her and that no pressure would
54
 55

be brought by the store if she did not 1. Symbolic Sexual Gratification

wish to continue. Fees for the psycho- Our first illustrative case is a house-
logical examination and any subse- wife, age about thirty; she had two
quent visits were discussed. children and a husband with a good
In a period of five years about eighty business. No financial need existed
shoplifters were referred. Of these, in this case. The woman was appre-
sixty-five carried through to the point hended with a $90 jacket. There had
of making the initial visit and of been several previous instances of
these slightly less than half returned shoplifting.
for testing and continued treatment. It was brought out during the treat-
All were females, ranging in age from ment that, just previous to each shop-
fifteen to sixty-three, with the major- lifting instance, she had experienced
ity between eighteen and twenty-five. sexual temptation in some form of
They were about evenly divided in approach which, if followed through,
terms of marital status. The number would have led to infidelity. She had
of return visits varied from a single not given in to these feelings, but was
visit to regular weekly visits over a aware that she had wanted to. In
period of a year. The average number the first instance a few years before,
of visits per client was eight. Two of she received a letter from a girlhood
the subjects were patently psychotic acquaintance with a glowing account
and were referred to psychiatrists; about a doctor who had been a boy
one accepted the referral and volun- friend of the subject and whom she
tarily entered a psychiatric hospital, had almost married. After reading the
but the other refused. Of the remainder letter, she went into a reverie, think-
whose test patterns showed no indi- ing how she had always wanted to
cations of psychosis, the basic motiva- marry a doctor, wondering what
it
tion fell about evenly into four cate- would have been like to be married
gories. We are speaking here of the to him. There was a strong feeling of
primary motivation of the shoplifter guilt for this fantasied infidelity. Two
in each case, which was not the only days later she stole a record album.
factor involved. These categories were: On another occasion ’the superin-
1. Stealing as symbolic sexual grati- tendent of the apartment house where
fication. she lived made a mild approach.
2. Stealing as a means of gaining Hearing that she was going to be down-
status or acceptance. town on a given day, he said: &dquo;I am
3. Stealing as a means of satisfying going to be downtown. Why not meet
an unconscious need for humiliation me for lunch?&dquo; She immediately read
and punishment. meaning into it, felt uneasy about it,
4. Stealing as a means of gaining and that day stole a hat.
revenge against the parents by bring- Several months later a friend of a
ing disgrace upon the family name. divorcee who lived across the hall
In a few of the cases the problem was
from her called her on the phone.
so close to the surface that the subject
It was a rather obvious proposition.
was able to gain insight after one or
two interviews. In others it was a deep- However, she could not say &dquo;no&dquo;
seated, long-standing difficulty and outright. She hedged a bit, but finally
required prolonged treatment. terminated the conversation. Two
56

days later she stole several pieces of ine it and say somewhat disparagingly,
costumejewelry. &dquo;Oh, this is fine, you’re good in school,
Just previous to the theft for which but look at what your sister can do
she was apprehended, the following with a few dollars on clothes.&dquo; The
situation occurred. A relative of her older sister did have an excellent
husband was visiting at their home on clothes sense. She worked in the gar-
his way through the city. The children ment trade and had access to reason-
left for school in the morning and the ably priced sources. All her life the
husband went to work. She was dressed younger girl had been unfavorably
in a housecoat. The relative got up compared with her sister. Even at this
late and was in his pajamas. She al- time, when the mother and father were
ways had been fond of him and, after away, the instructions had been,
they had a cup of coffee together, he &dquo;Take your older sister; she has good
began to become familiar and led her taste.&dquo; As it happened, the older sister
back into the bedroom. She finally was unable to accompany our subject.
resisted his approach and no inter- The girl started downtown alone.
course occurred. But she felt tre- She had one idea: &dquo;I’ll show them how
mendously guilty about this &dquo;near carefully I can shop.&dquo; She went to
miss.&dquo; Fourteenth Street to look for bar-
In each of these instances she had gains. In the first store she selected
felt a need for sexual gratification that one or two items for purchase, but
was unfulfilled. To relieve the need did not find a salesgirl. Impulsively,
she attained gratification symboli- she walked out with them. The idea
cally by stealing. It is interesting to grew-&dquo;This is going to be better than
note that the value of the articles I thought. I will really be able to make
stolen varied in accord with the in- a good impression.&dquo; She started up-
tensity and seriousness of the situa- town and had taken things from sev-
tion. eral stores before she was appre-
hended.
2. The Need to Gain Status
When asked if she had ever stolen
To illustrate this category, we have a before, she first answered, &dquo;No,&dquo; but
college girl home for the mid-semester then, after thinking awhile, said,
holidays. Her parents were in Florida &dquo;Yes, once-only once.&dquo;
for the winter season. She had been &dquo;When was that and exactly what
left a generous allowance to buy a happened?&dquo;
spring wardrobe. Her mother had also &dquo;I was in the first year of high
directed that the girl take her older school. I had never been popular with
sister with her &dquo;because she had such my classmates in grammar school and
nice taste in clothes.&dquo; The older sister had longed to be accepted as one of the
had always been a source of emotional group when I got to high school.
strain to the younger girl because of There was a club. The initiation for
the mother’s obvious bias in favor of the club was to steal something. I
the older daughter. Our subject was picked out the most difficult thing on
not particularly attractive but had an the list, stole it, and was accepted into
excellent record in high school. Each the club.&dquo;
month, when she brought home her The only previous time she had
report card, the mother would exam- stolen was to gain status and accept-
 57

ance among her friends. At this time, ment. She looked for it; for her, steal-
when the opportunity presented it- ing was a means of getting punishment
self, the unconscious pattern was by being caught and publicly humili-
there. Stealing gained the acceptance ated.
she had wanted. So she stole this time
in an attempt to gain her mother’s 4. The Need for Revenge
acceptance. In our fourth category we have a
girl who apprehended twice in
was
3. The Need for Punishment one day. Because of the prominence of
A woman was apprehended with an her parents, the first store released
article of small value, less than $10. her. After her apprehension in the
At the time she had $100 in cash in second store, she was referred to the
her purse and an active charge account author. In her life history there was a
at the store. This woman had married story of nervous, high-strung mother
for the first time in the early 1940’s. and gruff, brusque father who, al-
Three days after the marriage, the though he obviously did everything
husband, an army officer, went over- possible for her, was never able to
seas. He was away two years. She was express warm affection for her and
working in the city and each night, never gave her the feeling that she
as a commuter, the ferry with
was on was loved. There was a long-standing
an attractive They struck up an
man. hostility between the girl and her
acquaintance. He was married, too, mother. On the occasion in question
but he and our subject became friends. she had received a phone call from
They began to stay in town for a her father’s office and, in a state of
drink and dinner together. Finally panic, thought he was about to find
he got a small apartment and they fault with her for something that had
began to spend occasional nights to- occurred. She then went out, not
gether. They planned to get divorces knowing where she was going, and
and then be married. She became ended up in the store where she stole
pregnant, and had an abortion. several articles. Deep probing finally
Some time later her husband was brought out that there was only one
returned because of a serious wound thought in her mind-to get even
and was confined to an army hospital with her parents by disgracing the
for about eight months. This post- family name.
poned her plans because she could These cases are not numerous. How-
not bring herself to divorce him while
ever, the therapy has apparently
he was hospitalized. Upon his recovery, been successful and to date there
however, she told him about the other has been no known repeater among the
man. They were divorced. So were the
other couple, and our subject married group that accepted help. The experi-
ence seems to suggest that a therapeu-
the man she had met on the ferry.
But throughout this period she had a tic approach to the problem of shop-
strong feeling of guilt over the infi- lifting is beneficial not only in terms
delity to her husband while he was of the humane goal of helping the pa-
away in service, and felt even stronger tient to healthy emotional growth,
guilt over the abortion. It had never but also in terms of a practical dollars-
been alleviated-she needed punish- and-cents consideration for retail
58

stores. If, through treatment, we can dertake the expense of examination

effectively eliminate repetition of the and treatment. Retail stores might
offense, the potential occurrence of well consider the possibility and prac-
shoplifting can be reduced by approxi- ticality of setting up a treatment pro-
mately 25 per cent. gram, somewhat in the nature of a
The factor that appeared to be most shoplifters’ clinic. Such a program
important in the group who failed to would, in the long run, be profitable as
return after making the initial visit a definite addition to methods of loss
was unwillingness or inability to un- prevention.

Supplement
Probation for the Female Shoplifter
JOHN F. KREPPEIN
Chief Probation Officer, Queens County Court, New York City

is
shoplifter usually a female busy places and, unless necessity or
THE
for
others,
the simple reason, among
that most persons gathered
compulsion forces them to operate
alone, they work in teams of two or
in a large retail merchandising es- more. The chances for success are
tablishment at a given time are fe- greater where team operation is used;
males. the greater the degree of cooperation
Most professional shoplifters are not of the team members, the greater the
caught (and as for those who are, the degree of success achieved. Training
number of arrests is small compared techniques emphasize the need for
to the number of offenses). The con- finesse and boldness and the use of
verse of this is also true: the great rapid &dquo;spiels&dquo; which &dquo;con&dquo; the un-
majority of apprehended shoplifters trained and unsophisticated sales em-
are amateurs. ployee when experienced security per-
Professional shoplifters avoid ar- sonnel are not provided or are not
rest because they are clever enough to available at the spot. Good working
know the stores (or specific sections operations require good planning,
of the stores) that have good security coordination inside and outside the
measures, and are prudent enough establishment for execution and get-
not to practice their larceny in those away, and
ready channel for quick
a

places. Too, their professional train- disposal purloined merchandise.

of
ing and highly developed skills give The professional’s esprit de corps is
them advantages in situations where high, too! If she is arrested, she gen-
adequate store security personnel are erally describes herself as innocent,
not provided. confused, indigent, and alone in the
The first principle of professional big city, with no relatives or friends
shoplifters is, &dquo;There is safety in to help her. Yet, within a few hours
numbers.&dquo; So, they work in crowded, after apprehension, she mav be out