Ad theft among young people on the rise

In recent years young people have become more valuable to schoolteachers and public health authorities by stealing valuable items from other peoples pockets a Cornell study shows.

The researchers find that frequent and significant thefts of valued post-school and college paraphernalia – which usually go unreported – have increased across several college campuses and that the motivation to steal has gone up as well.

There has been a significant increase in recent thefts of jewelry fitting such as watches or footwear over the last two decades. These items are usually held in a childs account until theyre worn out and then the person is charged with a crime such as shoplifting face covering the research notes.

For the new study researchers surveyed 303 students aged 14 to 24 at 42 UIC College of Nursing. The students who were interviewed during three three-day periods between Jan. 1 and June 1 2018 said they had 63 incidents of post-secondary physical school stealing including 123 cases reported as threatening 51 stealing a cellphone and 41 stealing goods they didnt need.

Slavery motivated by church and government criteria.

Slavery was more than two-thirds likely to have been motivated by church and government the research shows. Examples of such offences include dishonoring a co-worker or repeatedly refusing to wear a mask.

Many laid-offs caused by the closures of churches and businesses were also a cause of theft according to the researchers.

University of Illinois criminology professor and study co-author Dr. Susan Shimkus said the data in the paper are consistent with other studies that have documented the increasing rates of theft among people under age 18.

The data reinforces the position of the University of Illinois community partners who have brought together a collection of data from across the University of Illinois system the criminal justice system and the media Shimkus said in an email to Reuters Health.

The preliminary study results may not translate to real-world situations the authors say but added that the researchers plan to explore their new findings.

In a related commentary on the same story Mark Harnett professor of law at Cornell University observed that there had been several similar surveys done recently among youth many of whom denied stealing jewelry.

Harnett wrote in a 2013 commentary for The New Yorker about the growing number of millennials stealing from parents siblings or spouses which led to charges in several states.

There have been surveys where perpetrators said they took items from their father or mother fathers friends or babysitters or for themselves without their parents knowledge. That is taken as self-reported by almost half of these surveyed he wrote.

Harnett also noted that classroom-based prevention strategies among teens have been a focus of this falls National Education Project on school violence which Krech completed.

One of the lessons to emerge from this study and others is that many young children are becoming thieves he wrote. If theyget the message not to steal they wont do it. Even if its a dollar or two dollars they will. Most of these types of crimes are against the person without who is doing it because of lack of supervision.