After discussing the importance of retailing in the world’s economy, the author details the difficulty faced by retailers in attempting to protect themselves and their store’s reputations from losses of proprietary information, cash receipts, and physical assets. Following a brief discussion of how most loss prevention literature appears in non-academic trade magazines, the author describes his telephone survey study of 60 senior-level retail loss prevention executives from 59 United States retail companies. Addressing the functions, performance measures, and partnerships faced by loss prevention executives, the author found that most loss prevention managers recognize the fact that theft, violence, and loss are a function of operational, demographic, process, and execution issues, not simply a crime problem. Loss prevention managers frequently stated that the changing mission of their jobs included recognizing “shrinkage” issues and employing measures for containing it, going into partnerships with store operations managers, finding effective ways to manage dishonest staff members, and developing and implementing loss prevention performance measures and evaluation techniques. The author argues that loss prevention managers are important for maintaining the profits of an organization as well as for insuring customer and employee safety. Tables, notes