the psychology of shoplifting

The recent travails of a famous tv chef's alleged shoplifting has given me insight into a relatively new media phenomenon of middle class shoplifting.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2012/01/15/antony-worrall-thompson-blames-his-shop-lifting-spree-on-abuse-as-a-child-115875-23699443/

Putting aside my sociology degree and the fact of relative deprivation whereby people committ crime because they feel deprived in comparison to their contemporaries and the more common fact of shoplifting caused frequently by drug addiction and poverty and what we have is the fact that previously so - called respectable "middle class types" stealing in order to fund their now income diminished lifestyles(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8847407/Middle-class-shoplifters-steal-cheese-and-meat.html;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226520/The-rise-middle-class-shoplifter.html).


So why do it as clearly the risks of a criminal record ,job loss and potential social stigma and the risks clearly do not justify the rewards of lifting an organic waitross goose or a free range spatchcock chicken(http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/29/nyregion/helping-shoplifters-to-reform.html?pagewanted=all;http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1361614/Confessions-middle-class-shoplifter-Stealing-kicks-womans-obsession-ended-police-cell.html).


This reminds me of the furore of the riots and the threats to law and order conjured of mostly working class and student types ; it is true a significant number were from the working class and a number from the african carribean community ,however not in as large a proportion as some of the tabloids would imply nor were they the majority(http://humstats.blogspot.com/2011/08/uk-riots-ethnicity-statistics.html).

This raises a question of justice and on the one hand with middle class getting to play the psychological problems or nervous breakdown card as a kind of opt out on the one hand , also one of the use of violence and force on the other hand with the riots being a particularly destructive series of acts of random destruction and looting far from the wealth redistribution envisioned by its less than well heeled protagonists.

So why do something so risky apart from for kicks when the rewards is so insignificant and social stigma so high? A simple suggestion is to argue both the rioters and the middle class are acting out of materialism, another more valid explanation is one of economic desparation, I however do not think it is simply greed nor self absorbtion posing as relative deprivation.

I do think increasing social anxiety and property crime is linked to both increased material deprivation ie poverty and unemployment throughout the lower and middle income groups combined with increased status anxiety and the threat to law and order posed by an increasing materialistic and individualised society (http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/resource/the-spirit-level).

Whilst it is true recessions galvanise social action initially as in 2009 when crime figures remain relatively stable it is now in the midst of a growing economic crisis in europe ; the effect of the spending with stagnating uk growth, rising unemployment and rising inflation along with the increasing risk of double dip recession due to events on the continent leads to it appears an increased impetus of all against all with the current climate resembling all the symptoms of a common recession with reduced consumer confidence ,low borrowing and spending and the problem of increased social strain. With the haphazard response of the police to the law and order problems that broke out in Tottenham last summer , with the possibility that last summer may not be an anomaly.

One fears that 2012 is going to be cursed to live in interesting times; with everyone it appears helping themselves to what they can.