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Personal Meaning in the Lives of a Shoplifting Population

NCJ Number
133512
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1991) Pages: 190-204
Author(s)
F L McShane; J Lawless; B A Noonan
Date Published
1991
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Data collected from 75 persons immediately after they had been arrested for shoplifting was compared with data collected from 75 nonshoplifting undergraduate students.
Abstract
The data were used in a study which evaluated the effectiveness of personal meaning as measured by the Purpose in Life (PIL) and Seeking of Noetic Goals (SONG) tests in discriminating the two groups. The study also systematically examined the relationship between several demographic, psychosocial stressor and attitudinal variables, and shoplifting activity. The findings supported the empirical support for the construct validity of both the PIL and SONG by predicting group membership for almost 78 percent of the subjects. Shoplifters were more likely to lack clear meaning or purpose in life and used their criminal activity to express an existential frustration. The low SONG scores recorded by the group of shoplifters suggested that attitudinal changes had to occur if the shoplifting activity was to cease. The results also indicated that nonshoplifters were more sophisticated in their judgment of what is more or less important about being a person and implied that shoplifters had maladjusted defense mechanisms. Measures of psychosocial indicators suggested that shoplifters did not suffer undesirable environmental conditions more than the control group. Future studies should focus on the relations between the endorsement of specific value systems and shoplifting as well as motivational correlates of shoplifting behavior. 3 tables, 1 note, and 62 references (Author abstract modified)