Would you please help me to find out what is the recent shoplifting rate
among teenagers or young people in the UK?

Dear trindigo-ga,

Unfortunately, the Home Office Police Recorded Crime Statistics and
the British Crime Survey (BCS) for 2002/3 do not break down the
shoplifting offences into age groups.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0203.html

The most comprehensive, up-to-date information is contained in the
Home Office Youth Lifestyle Surveys for 1998/9.

"The main purpose of the YLS was to measure the extent of offending
amongst young people, although it also asked about their own
experience of education and bullying, their home life, victimisation,
use of leisure time and their attitudes and worries about crime."
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/offendingyls.html

Figures for shoplifting are contained in various tables within these
two documents. Use the Acrobat search facility to find references to
shoplifting.

Home Office Research Findings 126 ? 6 page document   
"Youth Crime, Findings from the 1998/99 Youth Lifestyles Survey"
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/r126.pdf

Home Office Research Study 209 ? pdf file 112 pages. 
"Youth Crime, Findings from the 1998/99 Youth Lifestyles Survey."
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors209.pdf


Another recent source of information is a "study of the experiences of
retail crime among eleven to nineteen year olds in the Greater
Manchester" ? July 2003
http://www.storedetective.net/downloads/juvenile_crime_report.pdf


The British Retail Consortium issue a Retail Crime Survey annually.
This will contain many statistics from the Retail environment, but it
costs £100.
http://www.brc.org.uk/brctrading/publications_reports.htm


I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder


crime "home office" statistics
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=crime+home+office+statistics
"youth crime" statistics UK
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22youth+crime%22+statistics+UK

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Request for Answer Clarification by trindigo-ga on 24 Feb 2004 10:16 PST

I don't have time to go through each document, would you please just
tell me straightly what is the statistic of shoplifting in teenagers
in the UK? (or how common is a teenager to commit shoplifting in
average, or the rate of shoplifting in teenagers is much higher than
adults?)  thank u!

---

Clarification of Answer by answerfinder-ga on 24 Feb 2004 12:29 PST

Dear trindigo-ga,

The information is contained in some complex tables. Tables are quite
difficult to replicate on this web site. Do check the information with
the original document. I have supplied the page numbers to assist you.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hors209.pdf


"....report discusses the extent of self-reported offending by 4,848
people aged between 12 and 30 living in private households in England
and Wales."

Page 28
Percentage admitting offences once or more in the last 12 months
Shoplifitng
Age
12-13 14-15 16-17 18-21 22-25 26-30 12-30
Males % 
  1     4     3     1     2    <1     2
Females %
  4     6     3     2    <1    <1     2


Page 32
Profile of crime admitted by offenders of different ages
Shoplifting
Age
12-13 14-15 16-17 18-21 22-25 26-30 12-30
Males %
  4     15    5     5     5     1     6
Females
  27    41    5     9     5     22    18


Page 45
Percentage point change in offending between 1992/3-1998/9
Shoplifting
Age
14 ? 17 years 18 ? 25 years 14 ? 25 years
Males
+ 0.7         ? 1.4          ? 0.5
Females
? 2.1         + 0.1          ? 0.8


Page 76
Prevalence of offences and sanctions in the last year ? a detailed
breakdown by offences

Too complex to replicate here

Page 77
Profile of offences committed by males and females aged 12-30

Too complex to replicate here

Page 82
Type of offence by social class

Too complex to replicate here


Manchester survey
http://www.storedetective.net/downloads/juvenile_crime_report.pdf

"was conducted at secondary schools in the Greater Manchester area. Pupils aged
11 to 19 were asked to complete the survey anonymously using
computers. 126 complete responses were received, of which 119 were
identified as reliable - these form the basis of this analysis."

Page 3
Core Statistics
"Just under a third (31.1%) of respondents admitted having stolen, and
of these, over half (51.4%) had shoplifted in the past year. This
works out at 16% of 11 to 18 year olds having shoplifted in the past
12 months."

"The most likely age to shoplift is 15, with 39% of respondents of
this age claiming to have shoplifted in the last year. At this age it
also appears that females are more likely to steal than males."

"Of those who had stolen in the last twelve months, one in five
(21.1%) had been caught."

answerfinder-ga