Shoplifting: Work, agency, and gender

Abstract

Often described as "pink collar," shoplifting is crime thought to be dominated by women. While there is evidence of gender discrimination in the crime's availability to women and that drug addiction as well as personal resources motivate individuals to choose it, the gendered nature of this work (the "how" of the work) is not further elaborated in the literature. The occupational processes of the crime have also largely been omitted from research. The goal of the article is to describe the "job" of shoplifting and how it may be "gendered" by examining the ways individual women talk about the crime. © The Author(s) 2011.