Approximately one in 11 Americans have shoplifted and per year, companies lose more than 11 billion dollars in merchandise. While the majority of the time, shoplifters view shoplifting an addiction or disease, it ultimately is a crime, and in Virginia, you can face charges anywhere from petit larceny if the item(s) stolen is worth less than $200 and is punished with a Class 1 misdemeanor to grand larceny if the item(s) stolen are worth more than $200 and is classified as a felony.
Larceny is defined as the wrongful acquisition of the personal property of another person. Possession of the item(s) can be actual or constructive. If it’s actual, the person is in physical control of the property and it’s constructive if the person is not in physical control but there is sufficient evidence to believe that the person is in control of the property. For example, actual possession would be locating stolen property in a person’s purse. Constructive possession would be locating stolen property in the trunk of a car the person is driving.
A person is not considered guilty of larceny unless they carry away the personal property however, the individual(s) involved can be charged with concealment, which is another type of larceny in Virginia. Concealment occurs when someone willingly hides merchandise or takes merchandise from a store; alters the price tag(s) on merchandise, moves merchandise from one container to a separate container; when someone helps another person hide or take merchandise from a store; when someone assists or helps another person alter price tags on merchandise or moves it from one container to another.
A Class 1 misdemeanor is punishable in Virginia by confinement in jail for up to 12 months and a fine of $2,500 or less, and is the most serious of the 4 different classes of misdemeanors. A felony charge in Virginia for grand larceny states that a person can be punished by imprisonment in a state correctional facility for over one but less than 20 years through the discretion of the jury.
The rate of larceny in 2011 for Virginia totaled 144,491 reported cases. Of the 144,491 cases reported, 28,013 were related to shoplifting while the others were either pocket picking, purse snatching, theft from a building, theft from a coin-operated machine or device, theft from a motor vehicle, theft of a motor vehicle including parts and accessories, and miscellaneous larceny. The loss incurred from all larceny offenses totaled $112,294,239.
Shoplifting laws varies from state to state, however, under most state laws, the store has a legal right to stop as well as detain a suspect if they have any form of ‘probable cause,’ which is where any employee or staff of the store has seen the suspect take the merchandise, conceal it, move or modify the item and/or fail to pay for the item before leaving the store. The store can demand return of the merchandise, ban the offender from their store for a specified period of time, prosecute the offender criminally and charge the offender with a civil penalty. Guilty by association also comes into play, as you do not have to be the one who has taken the merchandise to be charged with shoplifting. Merely assisting a shoplifter in any way is often enough.
Some of those who shoplift suffer from a psychological complex and the largest psychological factor found in approximately one third of shoplifters is depression. The more intense form of shoplifting is classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) as an impulse disorder known as Kleptomania. For a person to be diagnosed with this disorder, they must meet the following criteria:
- Recurrent failure to resist impulses to steal objects that are not needed for personal use or their monetary value.
- Increasing sense of tension immediately before committing theft.
- Pleasure of relief at the time of committing theft.
- Stealing is not committed to express anger or vengeance and is not in response to a delusion or hallucination.
- The stealing is not better accounted for by Conduct Disorder, a Manic Episode, or Antisocial Personality Disorder.
A lot of the time, theft is discussed by the degree of impulsivity, planning, thrill, relief, vengeance, need, pleasure, and the degree of psychiatric imbalance on the latest theft occasion. Repeated offenders may constitute a significant medical problem and can be placed in educational programs and be treated based on their diagnosis.
Stores have been taking measures to ensure that the rate of shoplifting decreases, including in apparel, placing a small white tag inside the garment that has a security sensor and is hard to remove. Many stores have implemented higher security to combat the issue. To confront organized retail theft, some stores have involved multiple agencies from local police departments to the Department of Homeland Security.
Larceny of any sort is taken seriously in the state of Virginia and is punishable in a variety of ways from jail time to fines.
