A weekly programme which focuses on people and the situations which shape their lives.
Reporters Jim Douglas Henry, Jeremy James, Jeanne La Chard, Gillian Strickland,
Desmond Wilcox, Harold Williamson

December crowds gladden the hearts of shopkeepers-and also the shoplifters'; helping themselves to a merry Christmas in a blitz of stealing. Estimates of the annual pilferage from shops vary from £120-million to £280-million, making the Great Train Robbery look like small change. Some small businesses have even been shoplifted right into the bankruptcy court. Every day 75 shoplifters are caught, but security experts estimate that for every one they catch, 10 get away.
Shoplifters come from all ages and classes: schoolchildren stealing for a dare, grannies snatching a little luxury, crooks operating in highly organised gangs, housewives who take something for nothing without really knowing why. It was only in 1832 that Parliament abolished the death penalty for shoplifting, but today it usually attracts small fines or conditional discharge verdicts.
Tonight Man Alive talks to shoplifters, the shopkeepers, and those responsible for punishment, and asks why shoplifting has risen to such epidemic proportions.

(Colour)