An increasing number of high school teens are willing to steal, cheat or lie to get what they want according to the "2008 Report Card: The Ethics of American Youth," conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics based in Los Angeles, California. According to the Josephson Institute, the survey revealed “entrenched habits of dishonesty in today’s young people.”
Students at private schools, both secular and religious, were less likely to steal; however, the theft rate was still more than 1 in 5.
Other groups like student leaders, honor students and those most involved in school and community activities were also less likely to steal but again the theft rate for the group was more than 1 in 5.
Frequency of Theft by High School Youth – The chart below illustrates that theft admission rates vary greatly by gender with a significantly larger percentage of boys admitting to shoplifting than girls. However, there is little variation in the theft rate based on grade in school.
Stole from a store at least once
Stole 2 or more times
Total who stole from a store in the past year
Gender
Male
16%
19%
35%
Female
14%
12%
26%
Grade
12th
15%
30%
11th
10th
31%
9th
29%
Compounding the problem is the fact that the numbers in this survey, as in many self-admission surveys, are probably modest compared to reality. Lying on a survey of this type is not uncommon and is generally done in an effort to avoid admitting to wrongdoing.
In this case, 26 percent of the high school youth participating in the survey acknowledged their dishonesty; admitting that they lied on one or more questions. Incredibly, 93 percent of these same youth said these were satisfied with their personal ethics and character!
While this doesn’t bode well for future honesty in our communities and workplaces, there is something that can be done to influence the youth who steal from your stores, live in your local communities and are likely to be your future customers and employees.
Retailers can support local shoplifting prevention campaigns and help police and local courts facilitate education programs for youthful offenders – to hold them accountable for their behavior, to build their competency to make better decisions, and to reduce repeat offenses and even future internal theft in your stores.
Education programs can be made available through local police departments and courts as part of diversion, sentence or probation in most communities or can be offered directly to families by the apprehending retailers. Regardless of how you do it, education programs work. A recent recidivism study conducted in Seattle, Washington, by the Partnership for Youth Justice of King County found the Y.E.S. Program to be an “extraordinarily effective intervention for reducing shoplifting” as well as “reducing criminal behavior in general.”
Interested to see how much “wiggle-room” you allow in your own ethics and character? Take the Josephson Institute Integrity Survey at www.josephsoninstitute.org.
To read the entire 2008 Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth go to http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/.