Three quarters of Britons say shoplifting is being handled badly by police, but do see it as acceptable in certain circumstances
An inquiry by the House of Lords’ justice and home affairs committee has said that the levels of shoplifting in the UK are ‘unacceptable’ and ‘require immediate action’, pointing to figures that show the highest rate of shoplifting since records began 20 years ago. The Home Office have pledged to make assaulting shopworkers a specific offence and to dedicate more police officers to specifically tackle the crime, but what do Britons make of shoplifting?
Britons largely see shoplifting as a serious crime, with one in six Britons (18%) describing it as ‘very serious’ and 55% feeling it ‘fairly serious’. Just a quarter of the public (25%) see shoplifting as a ‘not very serious’ crime or ‘not serious at all’.
There is clear variation between age groups on the seriousness of the offence. While more than nine in ten of those aged 65 and over (93%) see shoplifting as an at least fairly serious crime, just three in ten 18-24 year olds (30%) see it that way, with 56% instead describing it as ‘not very serious’ and 10% as ‘not serious at all’.
The British public also tend to agree with the Lords inquiry on the unacceptability of current rates of shoplifting, with three quarters of Britons (74%) thinking the police are currently badly dealing with shoplifting and only 8% seeing the police as handling shoplifting well.
Such disapproval is fairly universal, including 73% of Labour voters and 84% of Conservatives, and stands in marked contrast to broader attitudes towards the police. Recent YouGov tracker data shows that 55% of Britons believe the police are generally doing a good job, while 42% have at least a fair amount of confidence in the police to deal with crime in their local area.
How do Britons feel shoplifters should be punished?
But while Britons largely see shoplifting as a serious crime, they tend not to see it as a crime worthy of prison. Nearly half of the public (47%) say the most appropriate sentence for shoplifting is generally community service, compared to three in ten (30%) who feel that a custodial sentence of some kind is the correct punishment.
Among those who favour a prison sentence for shoplifters, half (16% of Britons) see a sentence of no more than six months in prison as the most appropriate punishment, with only 6% of Britons seeing a custodial punishment of more than a year as the right call.
One in seven Britons (14%) see a fine as the most suitable reprimand for shoplifters.
Among Labour and Lib Dem voters, 68% favour non-prison punishments for shoplifters, including just over half (52-54%) supporting community service, while under a quarter (23-24%) see prison as the most appropriate sentence.
By comparison, those on the right are split, with 47% of Conservative and Reform UK voters believing a prison sentence of some length to be the most fitting punishment for shoplifters, compared to 51% of Conservatives and 47% of Reform UK voters who favour a non-custodial sentence.
Can shoplifting ever be acceptable?
In spite of its reputation among the British public as an at least fairly serious crime, many Britons can see shoplifting as acceptable in certain circumstances.
Half of the public (51%) say it can sometimes be acceptable to shoplift food if you are starving, although 41% still believe it can never be acceptable to shoplift food in that situation. This is distinct from if you merely cannot afford food, in which case belief that shoplifting can be acceptable falls to 40%, with the ‘unacceptable’ figure rising to 51% in this scenario.
Britons are most split on baby products. If you are a parent who cannot afford them, 44% of Britons believe it can sometimes be acceptable to shoplift baby products, against 47% who say it remains unacceptable.
Three in ten Britons (30%) believe it can be acceptable to shoplift toiletries if you cannot afford them, while one in five (20%) say the same of clothes. Shoplifting luxury goods, however, is near universally seen as never acceptable, just 3% of Britons feeling it can even sometimes be okay.
Beyond what you are shoplifting and why, Britons also see who you are stealing from as affecting its acceptability, with one in five (19%) seeing it as possibly acceptable to shoplift from a large company, compared to only 3% who believe it is okay to shoplifting from a small company.
As with attitudes to the severity of shoplifting, there is a clear age divide when it comes to whether it can ever be acceptable. For the eight scenarios polled, majorities of 18-24 year olds said shoplifting could be acceptable in six of them, whereas among the over-50 age groups none of these are seen as acceptable reasons to shoplift.
For instance, while 80% of 18-24 year olds think it is acceptable for someone to steal food if they are starving, this figure falls to only 35% of those aged 65 and over.
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Photo: Getty
