This article examines shoplifting from department stores and variety chain stores in interwar America and Britain. Patterns of shoplifting show strong similarities—with stores facing a predominantly female, and disproportionately affluent, army of amateur shoplifters, together with a much smaller corps of professional thieves. The incidence and characteristics of shoplifting are explored, together with the stores’ legal and other strategies to deter shoplifters. The article also examines why apparently prosperous women had the highest propensity to shoplift. Britain and the United States had strong commonalities in terms of open display retail formats, the methods used to deter shoplifters, and typical legal penalties. However, America had one critical difference—the much higher incidence of a type of store criminal who specialized in deliberately getting apprehended in order to sue the store for false arrest and, often, false imprisonment, slander, and a range of related charges. This reflected the higher damages typically awarded by U.S. courts compared with their British counterparts, inflated by local antagonism to retail corporations, together with a system—at least in some U.S. cities—whereby corrupt lawyers and judges connived in shoplifting acquittals that paved the way for lawsuits.

本文研究了两次世界大战期间美国和英国百货公司和杂货连锁店的入店行窃。入店行窃的模式显示出很强的相似性——商店面临的主要是女性，而且不成比例地富裕，业余入店行窃者大军，以及小得多的专业小偷队伍。探讨了入店行窃的发生率和特征，以及商店阻止入店行窃者的法律和其他策略。这篇文章还探讨了为什么表面上富裕的女性最容易入店行窃。英国和美国在开放式展示零售业态、阻止入店行窃的方法以及典型的法律处罚方面有很强的共同点。然而，美国有一个重要的区别——一种专门为故意逮捕而起诉商店的商店犯罪分子的发生率要高得多，他们以虚假逮捕，通常是非法监禁、诽谤和一系列相关指控为由。这反映出与英国法院相比，美国法院通常判给的赔偿金更高，由于当地对零售公司的敌意而夸大其词，再加上一种制度——至少在美国的一些城市——腐败的律师和法官纵容入店行窃，为无罪开释铺平了道路。诉讼。