Shoplifting Essay, Research Paper

Today shoplifting is one of the most common forms of theft in the United States. Shoplifting is now the number one cause for smaller stores to fail in today’s market. The small stores are also the ones the usually carry the smaller items which are the easiest to receive the “five fingered discount” on. The reason shoplifting has become so big is because the thieves some how justify their actions and they also don’t consider themselves thieves. The most common shoplifters are children and the senior citizens. It is the housewives and the college students that some how justify their stealing and don’t consider themselves thieves.

I think that shoplifting is totally wrong, and those who do shoplift are thieves. I can not understand how shoplifters can not consider themselves thieves. If they are not thieves then who are thieves, the people who want something. If a person absolutely needs something like food to live and they steel it, they are thieves. The difference is the person who needed the food stole it to survive, and all people have a right to life. I think shoplifters try to justify it by saying they need it, but in reality it is only an item they want or that would make their life better. The other downside to shoplifting, besides being immoral, is that is usually raises the prices on the item we buy weekly. For example if Joe walks into Jewel and walks off with a bottle of pop, and he does this more that once, the price of a bottle of pop ill rise because of one immoral person. This is sometimes the over looked portion of shoplifting. People will complain on the prices of many products going up, but then they will somehow shoplift. Lets say that Bob walks in to a fruit stand and tastes a few grapes. Then he decides not to buy any and leave. This might sound like Bob only ate a grape or two, but the truth is that he really did steal a few grapes. He might go uncaught, but because of his taste test the prices will go up, and he will complain because he does want to more than he already does. Shoplifters may not seem to effect you and me but in reality they do.

These are the people in today’s society that are stuck in stage one. They only care about themselves and they also don’t think that their actions will harm any one else, but what they don’t know, or care about, is that because they wanted to save a buck or two the rest of us have to pay for their wrong doings. If these people would try to turn their lives around and get out of stage one, they might realize that their action effect them and all of society in some way. If they got to stage two and maybe even past that they would maybe start to think about all actions they do, and how they can indirectly affect many other people.