We all know that posh girl from school/uni/work/wherever who made stealing from shops a bit of a sport. Whether it was a few hairbands from Superdrug, Strongbow from a Co-Op, a full blown M&S chocolate gateau or sports bags full of actual high street clothes, some middle class girls get a sort of thrill from taking things they can totally afford. We got thinking about this when MP David Lammy MP for Tottenham, which you’ll remember was at the centre of much looting following 2010’s UK-wide riots, wrote about stealing in a report for think tank Policy Exchange.
‘The impact of a £150 theft, for example, would be far greater on an independent corner shop than on Fortnum and Mason, yet this is not reflected under the current Act,' he writes. 'Many rightly argue that the seriousness of shoplifting should not be based on the value, but on the impact to the victim’
The paper is written in response to the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2013 defining ‘low level shoplifting’ as theft of goods valued at less than £200.
So, according to Mr Lammy, if you steal from a small shop, it’s going to really hurt the victim, whereas if you steal from a massive shop, it’s not going to make a big dent in the shop’s takings, and both of these need to be taken into consideration when someone's being prosecuted for theft.
Now, we’re not saying that it’s totally fine to go stealing this, that and the other from a massive corporation just because they’ll never notice. But maybe, as well as looking at where people are stealing from, it could be worth it to look at who is stealing; because there are people who steal out of necessity and people who steal out of choice, and though it might be thrilling and a little naughty (and yes, posh girls might think more than those who are stealing just to get by about who they’re stealing from), the latter should probably grow out of it already.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.