Shoplifting Research Paper

Approximately twenty five percent of shoplifters are children. In addition, fifty-five percent of shoplifters that are adults began shoplifting when they were only teenagers [4].
Adults continue to shoplift well into adulthood as seen in figure 1. This phenomenon may be explained by the labeling theory. The labeling theory states that once people begin to notice the labels placed on them they continue to behave according to the label and accept the label as the truth [3]. So, when a child first commits a crime, such as shoplifting, he or she is committing a primary deviance. Thus, they are labeled as a thief, and this label is a major factor in how people act towards the child. When the child steals again, this action is characterized as a