I'm concerned for you all

I found this sub while doing research for my own crime-related project. I'm a criminologist who has spent years researching this sort of thing and has written extensively on the topic. I also used to work in loss prevention for a large retailer. I sort of recognize the behaviors described here as the same as those in drug addict discourse communities. <br><br>I'm not here to try to get anyone busted or to lecture at you or anything like that. I'm here to genuinely tell you that I'm concerned for your welfare. I've spent my entire career studying people who do shoplifting as their main criminal activity, and it doesn't end well for the vast majority of them. Shoplifting is the one type of street crime that is the least likely to be successfully committed over a long period of time, and the more you do it the more asshole cops will bother you and the more stores will harass you. <br><br>Please remember that every time you describe something you did, you're potentially giving away your MO to someone who might know someone who can use that information to catch you.<br><br>I don't think any of you are inherently evil people. I think you're mostly regular people who have rationalized this behavior and found a community that encourages it. I'm begging you all to seek help if you feel like you can't stop and seek out other subreddits that encourage you to find a job or get into some other hobby that doesn't put you in danger of constant harassment from asshole cops and Loss Prevention people.<br><br>If you want to talk about it in my DMs, I'm a priovate message away. I don't care if you're a asshole or not. My job is to help people like you, and I want to help you. I'm not here to talk anyone down or any bullshit like that. I just want to help if I can.<br><br>I hope you all have a nice day and that you step away from this. I'm not here to harass anyone. I'm just worried about your welfare.<br><br>Edit: nobody ever asks the question "what if I get caught?" They only ask "how do I not get caught?" And then they usually go on to talk about some scheme they came up with. You're not fooling anyone with your stupid schemes. If you get caught, you're in trouble. It's not fucking worth it. Like I said, I've spent my entire career studying this topic. You're not inventing anything new. This isn't something that you can do over the long term successfully. It always catches up to you eventually.