Criminal Justice Data: Organized Retail Crime
Conceptualizing Organized Retail Crime (ORC)
– ORC, also referred to as organized retail theft (ORT), is a form of retail crime that involves large-scale theft and fraud by organized groups of professional shoplifters (or “boosters”).
– ORC differs from traditional shoplifting in that boosters steal merchandise to resell it through legal or illegal economic outlets for financial gain, rather than for personal use.
– Stolen and fraudulently obtained goods may be taken from retailers, manufacturers, and distributors.
– The proliferation of online marketplaces is believed to have contributed to increasing ORC, as they make reselling stolen goods easier.
Implications for Measuring ORC
– A primary barrier to accurately measuring ORC is the lack of a consistent, widely accepted definition that can be used for systematic data collection and reporting.
– Various stakeholders define ORC differently for their own purposes, but there is general consensus that it involves coordinated theft with the intent to resell for financial gain.
– Retailers and analysts may not be able to accurately separate ORC from other forms of external theft, such as shoplifting, when reporting and analyzing data on retail shrink (losses).
– An unknown portion of ORC incidents go unreported, and the underground activities of criminal networks make it challenging to measure the full scope of these crimes.
Sources of ORC Data
Criminal Justice Data
– At the federal level, there is currently no law prohibiting organized retail crime specifically, though federal laws related to money laundering, racketeering, and transportation of stolen goods can be used to prosecute ORC.
– Combating retail theft has primarily been handled by state and local law enforcement under state criminal laws, with over 30 states enacting ORC-specific laws. However, these laws differ by state and there is no centralized reporting system.
– The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program and National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) collect data on thefts reported to state and local law enforcement, including shoplifting, but do not capture ORC specifically.
Ad Hoc Research and Surveys on Retail Crime
– Researchers have examined data on offenses that may be related to ORC, such as shoplifting, but note that crime incident data are not well-suited to measure organized retail theft.
– Some have identified online marketplaces as potential outlets for the resale of goods stolen by ORC groups, but data on these activities are limited.
Industry Data
– The National Retail Federation’s (NRF) annual National Retail Security Survey (NRSS) provides industry-reported data on retail risks, threats, and vulnerabilities, including the threat of ORC.
– According to the 2023 NRSS, external theft (including ORC) accounted for about 36% of overall inventory shrink, and 78.1% of respondents indicated that the threat of ORC was more of a priority than in the prior year.
– However, the NRSS does not include data on the proportion of external theft incidents reported to law enforcement, and some retailers may not report all thefts due to concerns about reputational damage.
Going Forward
– Policymakers may debate the federal government’s role in deterring ORC and sanctioning various actors involved, but the lack of comprehensive data on the scope of ORC is a principal underlying issue.
– Options for improving data on ORC may include:- Establishing a national database on ORC, potentially housed within a federal entity or the private sector with federal support.- Enhancing the utility of the FBI’s NIBRS data collection by adding a data element for law enforcement to tag thefts that appear to be ORC.- Exploring data collection efforts by the Bureau of Justice Statistics or the National Institute of Justice to capture information on ORC victimization.- Considering a national survey of retail businesses to gather more comprehensive data on the prevalence of ORC.
Read the full report: https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R48061/2
