ABSTRACT

Use of the type coping is intended to draw a distinction between offending 'purely' for gain and stealing to have fairly basic things, the lack of which could be considered deprivation. Food, clothing, fuel and shelter are obvious candidates, the acute lack of which constitutes deprivation beyond poverty. Transport and leisure items are more dubious nominees, this chapter notes that some offenders under supervision, supported by their probation officers, do claim that stealing to obtain them are 'survival thefts'. It considers the link between unemployment and crime; however Field's two-way predisposition is intriguing because we are left with control theory firmly in command. The chapter distinguishes several kinds of circumstance in which people steal to survive at what is perceived by the individual to be a tolerable level of poverty, including: being homeless and penniless; being long-term benefit income only; having child-care responsibilities. It focuses on the character of the sample, the research instruments, completion of questionnaires by professionals.