Chicago author examines history, psychology behind shoplifting

Rachel Shteir likes unusual subjects for her books. Her book "Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show" was a Boston Globe Editor's Choice. And her newest book, "The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting" (Penguin Press 2011; $25.95), is just as intriguing.

Shteir, an associate professor in dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Theater School at DePaul, has undertaken one of the first serious explorations of a crime that dates back to Elizabethan England, a time when shoplifting wasn't punished with a sentence of community service but instead might bring the death penalty.

Finding subjects when researching the book wasn't hard, Shteir says.

"Some shoplifters I literally met at dinner parties or while interviewing people at Starbucks," she says, noting that a study estimated some 27 million Americans shoplift.

Those are the ones who are caught. According to Shteir, mall and store security may only apprehend a shoplifter one in 48 times and inform the police of the incident one in 50 times.

Dissecting why people do it, Shteir examines all shoplifting permutations including compulsive behaviors, a protest against uncaring corporations, a teenage activity, the need for the item or the money it will provide and even loneliness and sadness.

There are, of course, the glamorous shoplifters such as movie star Winona Ryder who stole designer clothes from Saks and was, in some ways, celebrated.

"The Festival Market Mall in Pompano Beach, Fla., used the final minutes of the Saks surveillance video, when Ryder exits the store, along with the song 'The Best Things in Life Are Free' in its ads," Shteir writes. "'Winona Knows. Why Pay Retail?'" the caption reads."