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.

本文调查了两次世界大战期间美国和英国的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强烈的相似性——商店面对的是主要是女性的、非常富裕的业余入店行窃大军，以及规模小得多的职业小偷。探讨了入店行窃的发生率和特征，以及商店阻止入店行窃的法律和其他策略。这篇文章还研究了为什么看似富裕的女性最容易入店行窃。英国和美国在开放式陈列零售形式、用于阻止商店扒手的方法以及典型的法律处罚方面有很强的共同点。然而，美国有一个关键的区别——专门从事蓄意逮捕的商店罪犯的发生率要高得多，目的是起诉商店进行虚假逮捕，通常还包括非法监禁、诽谤和一系列相关指控。这反映了与英国同行相比，美国法院通常会判给更高的损害赔偿金，而当地对零售公司的敌意以及一种制度——至少在美国的一些城市——使腐败的律师和法官纵容入店行窃的无罪开释铺平了道路诉讼。