LogFAQs > #980650534

adjl posted...

How much do you think it costs to prosecute somebody (bearing in mind that, at a minimum, you're looking at two lawyers and a judge that each make a couple hundred an hour)? How much do you think any individual shoplifter actually costs society?

Collectively, shoplifting is certainly a problem, but it's a problem spread out across thousands of small-scale criminals, each of which is far more expensive to prosecute than to leave alone. If resources are limited, disregarding any but the most egregious examples of shoplifting is precisely what any given court system should be doing, allowing those limited resources to instead be focused on higher-value cases (like fraud that results in a $350 million fine or a presidential candidate using campaign funds to bribe people to not say bad things about them).

I appreciate your well thought out and measured response.

While charging shoplifters may come with a large expense, not doing so only encourages first time and reapet offenders. Not prosecuting smaller crimes leads to the commission of more serious crimes. While the cost of each individual shoplifter may not be much, collectively it leads to higher prices, lost tax revenue, store closures and businesses shutting down, and lost time and a more inconvienient shopping experience. Its analogous to death by 1000 paper cuts.