The Selectivity of Legal Sanctions
An Empirical Investigation of Shoplifting
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4085206 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Erhard Blankenburg (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1976 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 109-130 |
| Publication date | 1976-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Law & Society Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3053206 |
| OpenAlex | W2324976676 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 9 |
This study examines the factors that determine the probability that a very common form of deviant behavior, shoplifting, will be detected, reported, and sanctioned. Data obtained both from self-reported crime, and from experiments in which researchers actually shoplifted goods from supermarkets and department stores with the authorization of their executive officers but without the knowledge of store employees, indicate that enforcement of the norm is highly selective. Less than 10 percent of all shoplifting is detected, and customers appear unwilling to report even flagrant cases. Even with an announced policy of full reporting and prosecution, only 70 percent of the shoplifting detected is reported, and only 55 percent is sanctioned. Foreigners, adults, and blue-collar workers are disproportionately represented among those sanctioned.These findings challenge the common assumption that norms backed by legal sanctions are highly effective. One reason may be that the division of labor between stores, which detect, and police and prosecutor, who sanction, completes the differentiation of moral and legal norms, subverting the effectiveness of both. The results also highlight the misleading nature of criminal statistics, which purport to measure crime but in fact describe the behavior of detecting and enforcing agencies
Business · Criminology · Economics · Law and economics · Political science · Sanctions · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Law · Psychology · Sex work and related issues
Attitude Toward an Authority and the Reporting of a Crime
The Origins of Public Prosecution at Common Law
Who reports shoplifters? A field-experimental study
The Mobilization of Law
Production of Crime Rates
Getting the Crime Rate Down
Deviance and Respectability
Decisions of Shoplifting Victims to Invoke the Criminal Justice Process
The Differing Realms of the Law
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,1 |
| Citation span | 1978 - 1985 (8) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |