Bad Behavior - stealing

Bad behaviour

This blog is a summery of the notes I took during the lecture.

This lecture was given by David Calcutt, which I found funny as I was sat with his daughter Helen when he asked everyone in the room to raise their hand if they had ever stolen anything, and we both did.

Shoplifting and kleptomania may sound like one in the same thing, but shoplifting is probably a better description of someone who steals out of necessity, and a kleptomaniac is someone who steals not through need , but through compulsion.
Kleptomania seems to be defined through addiction to the thrill/possibility of being caught, done to achieve an adrenaline rush.

Is shoplifting wrong?

A debateable subject for many reasons, those who genuinely steal to feed their families can surely be forgiven? Particularly if they steal from Mr. huge supermarket and not the local corner shop? What I mean by this is that shoplifting from a small shop would affect my conscience much more than stealing from a large chain superstore. I’m aware that some people believe stealing is always wrong, in fact I’m inclined to agree most of the time, but I would make some exceptions. So I guess that would make me more interested in personal morality than being a good law abiding citizen.
Surely at some point we are all being robbed anyway with the enormous mark up on items such as clothing? Particularly when you consider the awful conditions these clothes were quite often manufactured in, paying the cotton harvesters less than enough to live on so we can wear the latest fashionable jumper costing over a £!00, surely we are being robbed there?



http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/kleptomania/DS01034

If you think, or you think you may know someone who has kleptomania this will prove to be an interesting link for online diagnosis. It also a very interesting read.