Shoplifting 'should be renamed' as term trivialises serious crime

1 sources1 storiesFirst seen 5/20/2026Score26Mixed Progress

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The Government is facing calls to ban the word "shoplifting" on grounds the term downplays a "serious and frequently violent" form of organised crime.Mark Gleeson, vice president at Auror - a multinational firm whose intelligence systems support major UK retailers and police forces - has instead urged authorities to adopt terms such as "store theft" or "retail crime".He argued stolen merchandise can fund drugs, gangs and exploitation through wider criminal networks, while shop workers face daily threats and independent retailers suffer repeated attacks.Writing in the Telegraph, Mr Gleeson said: "We need to drop the language that trivialises this crisis.

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TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say "These words utterly fail to capture what's really happening."Recorded shop thefts have surged to more than 500,000 annually, according to police data.This represents a 133 per cent rise over the past five...

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