The study presents statistics on employee theft demonstrating that the problem is widespread and involves a diverse group of offenses and offenders. The legal, business, and social prespectives on employee theft are reviewed. The sociological view which focuses on the victim-offender relationship was adopted for this study on the hospital as victim. Control theory provided the theoretical basis for the research by assuming that the hospitals with the greatest amounts of pilferage would lack security controls. Administrators of 150 acute care and ageneral hospitals completed a mailed questionnaire which surveyed hospital complexity, number of employees, turnover, unionization, amount and type of security force, number of bonded employees, concern about employee theft, amount of theft, and punishment for offenders. Only 48 percent of the responding hospitals reported any theft for a mean loss of $12,586 and a median loss of $500. The lack of accurate information on theft and the tendency to report small amounts of theft suggest that hospitals, like other organizations, view employee theft as acceptable or petty. An analysis of hospital characteristics showed that organizational size and complexity had little impact on pilferage, although more theft was reported in smaller, less complex, hospitals. Nursing and food services were particularly vulnerable to theft. High employee turnover and low unionization contributed to a high rate of reported theft. A circular process was observed in hospitals whose administrators tried to determine the exact amount of theft and take preventive measures, but consequently also reported higher loss rates. Offenders were generally handled informally, primarily through loss of a job. Only 10 of the 72 hospitals reporting pilferage had prosecuted an employee during the last 5 years. Future research should consider the influence of job satisfaction on theft, th impact of security systems, and organizational characteristics associated with employee theft in nonhospital settings. Statistical tables and a bibliography of over 90 references are provided. The survey questionnaire is appended.