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I'm Helena Merriman, and in a new BBC series,
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Taking something from a store without paying for it goes by many names,
be it swiping, boosting, the five-finger discount or shoplifting.
This type of retail crime can be opportunistic or planned on a much larger and lucrative scale.
It's a problem that's been surging in many countries around the world,
where the estimated cost of retailers runs into billions of dollars.
It's a complex, persistent problem and no stories immune from it.
So this week we're asking, what's behind the global rise in shoplifting?
Shoplifting seems to be that one kind of offense that's very common for someone to conduct once in their life.
Nicole Bergerlein is a sociologist at the University of Cologne in Germany,
where she researches crime.
If they do something to maybe prove that they are very brave towards their peers,
it's probably shoplifting.
So the normality of it is something that's come as a surprise, to be honest.