SHOPLIFTING
Broadcast starting week of March 1, 2006

This week on The Infinite Mind we’re talking about Shoplifting.  We explore the science behind the urge to steal, and the paradox of how a petty crime and a compulsive behavior remain celebrated in our society. Host Dr. Peter Kramer discusses shoplifting as a teen rite of passage with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and speaks with director and star of the film "Thirteen," Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed who give us their take on why teens steal. Criminologist Richard Hollinger details the motives behind shoplifting and tracks the billions of dollars of losses to the retail industry. And, psychiatrists Dr. Jon Grant and Dr. Eric Hollander dissect what’s going on in the brains of people with kleptomania. Historian Elaine Abelson takes us back 200 years to the origins of the kleptomania diagnosis and explains how wealthy shoplifting women used biology as a defense in court.  And comedian and jazz singer Lea Delaria performs her take on Jane’s Addiction’s hit college rock song Been Caught Stealin’.  With commentary from John Hockenberry. 

First, we explore the science behind the urge to steal and the paradox of the petty crime and compulsive behavior which remain celebrated in our society. Dr. Peter Kramer begins with an essay describing the mixed feelings we have about shoplifting as a culture. He raises the question…What should we make of a behavior that is common, confusing, repellant and seductive? Most people begin shoplifting in their early teens. We first hear a candid account from two college students who describe the extensive shoplifting exploits of their younger days and why they stopped stealing after they left high school.

To better understand what would drive teens to shoplift and what makes them stop, we speak with Dr. Jonathan Haidt, associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. He is a social psychologist who studies moral psychology and the development of moral emotions. His upcoming book is "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom". Dr. Haidt explains that shoplifting emerges in a developmental stage when teens try to gain the admiration of peers in order to secure their place in the social pecking order. At some point teens mature and the combination of societal pressure, shame, fear of being caught and an internal sense of morality kicks in – and most people stop shoplifting, and start condemning it. For more information visit Dr. Jonathon Haidt's website

Next we hear more about the self-destructive risks teens take from the makers of the critically acclaimed, Oscar-nominated film, Thirteen. The Infinite Mind’s Jennifer Chu talks with director Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, who co-wrote the film based on real-life experiences. Hardwicke was a friend to Reed when she was going through her rough early teens, and describes how suddenly Reed looked all grown up but hated herself and everyone in her family. Reed describes the shoplifting, drugs and sex in the movie as an accurate depiction of how some young women respond to peer pressure and rampant materialism in society.

Then we turn to a criminologist for a view on shoplifting. Dr. Peter Kramer speaks with Richard Hollinger from the University of Florida. He explains how shoplifting and employee theft account for billions in losses to retail stores. He conducts the National Retail Securities survey, which is the annual bellwether study of retail crime. He explains that there is no typical shoplifter – they actually match the average client at every store. Some shoplifters are part of organized criminal gangs, while others are stealing goods they need, and some are stealing for the thrill of it. Shoplifting is rarely prosecuted, he says, due to the high court costs for retailers.

We then hear a musical tribute to shoplifting from comedian, Broadway performer and singer Lea Delaria. On Delaria’s new album, Double Standards (Telarc), she gives the college rock anthems of the ‘90s a jazz swing. She performs her version of Jane’s Addiction’s hit song "Been Caught Stealin'" live for The Infinite Mind from a studio in Vancouver. She is accompanied by musicians Chad Makala, Martin Fisk, Mark Haney, and Bill Sample who are performing with her in the Vancouver music of Alley Cats. For more information on Lea Delaria and her new album visit Telarc.

Next we hear the story of a woman (who preferred to not disclose her name) who started shoplifting when she was a teenager but never grew out of it. Until pressure from her fiancé caused her to reconsider her behavior, she couldn't leave a store without taking something. She describes the thrill of stealing and the compulsion to continue, even as she knew she was putting herself at risk.

Dr. Peter Kramer explores the mental health disorder called kleptomania with Dr. Eric Hollander and Dr. Jon Grant . Dr. Hollander is professor of psychiatry, director of the Seaver and New York Autism Center of Excellence, Director of Clinical Psychopharmacology and Director of the Compulsive, Impulsive and Anxiety Disorders Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He co-edited the 2006 version of the Clinical Manual of Impulse-Control Disorders. Dr. Jon Grant is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota Medical Center and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gambling Studies. He conducted one of the first brain-imaging studies focused on people who have kleptomania.

Drs. Grant and Hollander describe their experiences treating patients with kleptomania, an impulse-control disorder that shares some of the properties of other addictions like gambling and certain drug use. They describe new studies that examine the question, is there an underlying biological component to compulsive shoplifting? They describe the mix of treatments for kleptomania that include pharmaceutical and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Then we turn back the clock two hundred years, to some of the first publicized cases of shoplifting that coincided with the emergence of the department store as an urban institution. The Infinite Mind’s Jennifer Ehrlich speaks with Elaine Abelson, Senior faculty member at Eugene Lang College and the New School for Social Research in New York City. She’s author of "When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-Class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store." Abelson tracked 190 high profile cases of middle-class female shoplifters in the 19th century. She describes how the treatment of their cases in newspapers led to cultural stereotypes of kleptomaniacs that captured the Victorian imagination. Abelson also details how psychiatrists at the time linked kleptomania with women’s reproductive systems and inherent biological weakness.

And The Infinite Mind’s John Hockenberry confesses to his own life of crime.

 

Heard on this week's program:

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