Survey: Retail theft on the rise - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

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For the first time in six years, there’s been a real increaser in the rate ofretail theft, accordint to a survey conducte by the with a funding grantf from . "This year, both the dollatr loss and rate of loss increasedc and the evidence shows that the economy and resultinbg cutbacks in staffing by retailers are creating an opportunistivc environment for both individual shoplifters and organizedretailk criminals," said U of F criminologis Richard Hollinger, who directed the In 2007, the lowest rate of retail theft in the 18-yeaer history of the survet was reported at a rate of 1.44 perceng of overall retail sales. Last year, that rate rose to 1.
52 percenf of sales translating into lossesof $36.5 billion. Hollingef notes the numbers are from last and don’t reflect retail theft rates for the first part of this year when the recessioj was even worse. Employee theft comprises the largestf portion ofthe losses, which totaled $15.9 billion, or almost half of losses (44 Shoplifting accounted for $12.7 billion (35 percent) of Other losses included administrative error ($5.4 billion and 15 percent of shrinkage) and vendort fraud ($1.
4 billion and 4 percent of