Shrinkage, shoplifting and the cost of retail crime in Europe: a cross‐sectional analysis of major retailers in 16 European countries

A self‐report questionnaire was used to discover key shrinkage, theft and loss prevention data from 476 major European retailers (23 per cent of West Europe's retail turnover) in 16 countries for the financial year 2001‐2002. The response rate was 33 per cent. Shrinkage rates were found to vary considerably between countries with a weighted average of 1.45 per cent (1.42 per cent in 2000/2001), equivalent to €30,310 million (or $27,582 million). A total of 18.3 per cent of shrinkage was perceived to be caused by “internal error” rather than crime and this estimate is deducted from shrinkage to derive the crime figure. Retail crime cost retailers €30,407 million ($27,670 million). In contrast to US data, customer theft was seen as the most important crime cost, followed by employee theft, security costs and supplier theft. Stores apprehended more than 1.2 million thieves in 2001/2002, but passed only 25.7 per cent to the police.