Dear Sticky Wicket,
My white friends laugh at the suggestion that I am profiled, and followed by store detectives, when I shop, just because I am dark skinned. Is it just my imagination or am I targeted more often than my white friends?
~Black in Baltimore
Dear Black in Baltimore,
It is not your imagination. Historically, store detectives or “loss prevention specialists,” as they are now known, have directed more attention to Blacks and Hispanics than Whites. But there are no statistics to support this practice. A University of Florida study conducted in 2005 debunks the myth that Blacks and Hispanics shoplift more than Whites. Researchers covertly observed 1,365 shoppers in an Atlanta drug store with closed-circuit television cameras. Slightly more than 8 percent of the people who entered the store stole an item. Surprisingly, despite the stereotype that women boost more merchandise from stores, this study showed that men stole more often.
It appears that men and women steal for different reasons. Women frequently steal when they are in need of food for themselves or their family, while men steal more frequently to support a drug habit. To debunk another myth, youth don’t steal more often than adults; in fact, the Florida study showed that on average the age range of shoplifters is 35-54. The one ethnically linked factor discovered is that Hispanic women were eight times more likely to steal than white women; however, this study was located in one store in a Hispanic neighbor in Atlanta.
In an article, “Retail Store Detectives Might Be Watching The Wrong Suspects,” author Winston Charles, reveals that people steal from stores for eight reasons: Depression, anxiety, sadness, a need to get things for free, feeling they deserve the things they steal, a recent loss, a shopping addiction, and as the result of an impulse disorder such as kleptomania. These factors affect people of all races and ethnicities in equal distribution.
In short, the store detective’s propensity to target Black or Hispanic individuals is likely based on their own stereotypes rather than reality. But racial profiling of shoppers is still alive and well in America, but there are no facts or rational thinking to support it.