The CEO of pikey supermarket Iceland says:
Petty shoplifting has been decriminalised – it’s not really a crime at all, is it? No one suffers, the shop can afford it. It’s victimless.
He’s being sarcastic, whilst trying to make the case that actually shoplifting is v. v. bad. Unfortunately, he fails, by the means of saying something that’s obviously true and sensible.
Unlike most other forms of theft, shoplifting causes no harm, suffering or trauma to any individual. Even the extra staff time spent dealing with it is paid-for, work time. Hence, minimal or zero punishment for it is appropriate, as it encourages acquisitive criminals to switch from harmful crime to harmless crime.
(he makes the irrelevant point that a very small proportion of shoplifters sometimes use violence or threats against staff when caught. Yes, they do: this is legally classed as ‘robbery’, and people who do it go to jail.)
Many stores belong to ‘civil recovery’ schemes, which basically means that if they don’t think they can prove a criminal offence of theft, they’ll take out a nuisance civil suit against you to recover the costs you supposedly caused them.
As New Labour know all too well, civil cases are easier to win because there’s a lower standard of proof. (And the store can afford lawyers, which you probably can’t).
Actually, it is interesting. I used to work for a leading record store and they told us not to bother going after shoplifters – if what they nicked was under £10, it didn’t matter. If it was over £10, it was insured.
Bish bosh.