The National Association for Shoplifting Prevention is a program for people who compulsively steal and want to stop. It turns out that the holiday shopping season is an especially tempting and alluring season for people with the urge to steal, as CNN reported as far back as 1997.

It might be interesting Saturday to look at how many shoplifting arrests your local police departments made on the big Friday shopping day. Can the District Attorney's office tell you the names of the most-prosecuted shoplifters in your community? I bet the public defender knows the repeat offenders. What an interesting profile that could be.

How about interviewing a career store security detective?

Crime-prevention consultant Chris McGoey, who runs CrimeDoctor.com, says shoplifting costs big bucks:

Depending on the type of retail store, retail inventory loss ranges from 0.7 percent to 2.2 percent of gross sales, with the average falling around 1.70 percent. Whole retail store chains have gone out of business due to their inability to control retail theft losses. And worse yet, the cost of these losses are passed on to us... the consumer.

 

Shoplifting losses vary by store type, but can account for about one-third of the total inventory shrinkage. It is estimated that shoplifting occurs 330 to 440 million times per year at a loss of $10 billion to $13 billion. Nationwide, that equates to 1.0 to 1.2 million shoplift incidents every day, at a loss rate of $19,000 to $25,300 stolen per minute. When you factor in employee and vendor theft, this sum skyrockets to an estimate of more than $33 billion stolen per year.

• There are an estimated 25 million shoplifters in our nation today (approximately 1 in 11 Americans).
• Retailers lose $25 million a day to shoplifting.
• There is no profile of a typical shoplifter. A shoplifter can be anyone.

Shoplifters steal in all types of stores...

• 69 percent say they steal in department stores
• 63 percent in supermarkets
• 57 percent [in] specialty shops
• 54 percent [in] convenience stores
• 47 percent [in] drug stores
• 27 percent [in] all other [types of] stores
• Contrary to popular belief, men and women shoplift equally as often.
• About 25 percent of shoplifters apprehended are juveniles; 75 percent [are] adults.
• Shoplifters say they are caught an average of only once every 49 times. They are turned over to the police 50 percent of the time.
• A small percentage of shoplifters are "professionals," who steal solely for resale or profit as a business. These include drug addicts who steal to feed their habit, hardened professionals who steal as a lifestyle and international shoplifting gangs who steal for profit as a business.
• The vast majority of shoplifters are non-professionals who steal, not out of financial need or greed, but as a response to social and personal pressures in their life.
• Approximately 70 percent of non-professional shoplifters don't plan their thefts in advance; 30 percent do. [...]

Shoplifters classified as "first offenders" admit to stealing from retail stores at the following frequency:

 

13 percent say they steal daily or several times/day
57 percent say they steal monthly or more often
27 percent say they steal weekly or more often
43 percent say they steal less than monthly

 

[...]

 

Most non-professional shoplifters don't commit other types of crimes. They'll never steal an ashtray from your house and will return to you a $20 bill you may have dropped.

 

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Secular Christmas Carols

Starting today, and for another month, you will hear nonstop Christmas music on the radio, in stores and on elevators.

ReligionLink, a Web site from the Religion Newswriters Association, notices that an increasing amount of "holiday music" is secular, rather than religious, in tone. You'll be hearing a lot of Santa and winter songs these days.

Complaints about the secularization of Christmas extend to music. But in a difficult year of war and natural disasters, Christmas carols may bring comfort and channel emotion. In fact, many holiday favorites were created during hard times. Take "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the lyrics around 1862 out of his grief over his wife's death and his opposition to the Civil War. Is it possible that people this holiday season will reach more toward classic Christmas carols with sacred themes for solace and encouragement? Will secularization continue to be the trend? What messages in newly produced seasonal songs will prove popular?

• William Studwell of Bloomington, Ind., who is a professor emeritus of library sciences at Northern Illinois University, is considered one of the world's leading experts on Christmas carols. For 20 years, he has named a Carol of the Year. This year it will be Angels We Have Heard on High. [...]
• Christmas music historian Ron Clancy of North Cape May, N.J., produces the "Millennia Collection," a multivolume set of Christmas music books and CDs. [...]
• Kenneth W. Osbeck of Rockford, Mich., is the author of "Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions" and "Joy to the World: The Stories Behind Your Favorite Christmas Carols." [...]
• Read a pair of December 2003 columns by Terry Mattingly about carols: "A Caroling We (Don't) Go" and "What is a 'carol' anyway?"
• Read a Dec. 20, 2002, Religion & Ethics Newsweekly feature on Christmas carols.
• Read a Dec. 15, 2000, Christianity Today article, "Peace on Earth? Christmas Carols and the Civil War."

Winter Birding

This time of year, keeping that bird feeder full is very important to the little feathered ones. The Star-Tribune, in Minneapolis, said:

It's generally agreed that back-yard bird feeders supply only about one-quarter of a winter bird's diet, except on the coldest days and after ice storms. But feeders are a welcome respite, especially during the morning feeding rush (when birds hurry to replenish the body fat lost overnight) and before nightfall.

From Birdwatching.com:

What do birds want?
Where to feed them?
What foods to provide?
What not to buy
Helping or hurting?
Plants for birds
Why do we feed birds?
More information

Vets Helping Vets

Kerry Davis at KVLY-TV in Fargo, N.D., told me about a story on Minnesota Public Radio that you could localize. On the campus of the University of Michigan, veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are helping fellow vets as they transition back to civilian life. They have established a Veterans Transition Center on the college's campus. Do similar programs exist in your communities?

Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible.