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Shoplifting - By setting up this study, the author meant to examine the phenomenon of shoplifting. The object concerned the study of literature and the analysis of 573 cases of shoplifting in four department stores in Ghent, during the year 1969. The results of this study showed that shoplifting is not just a female crime; there were also many male thieves, most of whom were minors and unmarried, whereas most of the women were adults and married. Nearly 4 % of the thieves were foreigners. Although between the studied cases there were more minor boys than girls, the latter stole twice as much. Adult women stole more than three and a half times as much as adult men. Furthermore, only 10 % of the thieves were arrested, and only 10 % of them were reported to the police. The phenomenon of shoplifting is not so much due to the disease called “kleptomania”, but to a series of factors, among others the structure of the department store and the lifting possibilities offered there. As regards the phenomenon of the “dark numbers” (by which we mean the cases which were not reported to the police), it is a fact that a great unknown delinquency does surely not contribute to the study of the etiology of crime and of the required measures to prevent it. The meaning of the author is, that it would be desirable that all cases should be reported to the competent judicial authority.
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How to Cite: Fiers, J. (1971) “Warenhuisdiefstal”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen. 16(4). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.95896