ABSTRACT
Using data from recent surveys of loss prevention and security professionals in the United States and the United Kingdom, retail shrinkage levels, perceived sources of loss, and typical retail security countermeasures are compared. Although hard to directly compare, average retail shrinkage levels seem somewhat lower in the UK than the US. While employee (i.e., staff) theft is thought to be a larger problem in the US, in Britain shoplifting and employee theft are thought to be rather equally sized problems. Security” spending seems higher in the US, but rates of increase in the UK insure that parity will occur quite soon. The use of pre-employment screening (i.e. vetting) and formal loss prevention awareness programs are used less frequently in the UK. In both countries the replacement of staff by detection technology is a growing trend, although currently more prevalent in the US. Moreover, in both the UK and the US, there is evidence that non-criminal justice sanctioning alternatives are increasing in popularity.
