From the recent research put out by the British Retail Consortium, traders have described a distinct rise in hostility and shoplifting as a direct result of the recession.

The latest crime study by the trade body the British Retail Consortium highlights retail thefts by customers rose by approximately thirty three percent between 2008 and 2009.

It makes outrageous reading that a shop theft takes place almost every minute of the day, twenty four hours a day, and is one reason why business experts are requesting that the police and those others who are in authority take retail theft more seriously.

Not only did this study show a rise in retail theft but more disturbingly, violent behaviour against staff also increased and as a result shop keepers are asking the police to do more to care for them and their stock.

The report states that at least 22,000 employees countrywide say they have been on the receiving end of customer violence and a representative from the British Retail Consortium said police and others in the criminal justice system do not take store crime seriously enough.

This wide ranging survey carried out by the BRC covered sixty key stores, with over a million personnel and represents in the order of half the market.

So what exactly does half million a shoplifting thefts a year equate to in monetary terms? Well the answer is over one billion GBP in lost revenue for the retailers of the United Kingdom.

It has been suggested by industry experts that this figure could be quite modest, with the actual amount being twice as much because the reckoning is that not all the incidents are reported.

This is not a victimless crime and many people will try and persuade you otherwise but just keep in mind it will be the honest shopper who suffers the additional monetary costs whilst it is left to the unfortunate employee to bear the emotional and psychological cost that comes from the distress of an attack in their workplace.

Given the current financial and social climate you may be wondering if this situation like to resolve itself without any positive action being taken by the UK retail industry.

We would say no and our reasons for this are simple, the government is currently implementing the most aggressive spending cuts in history, as a result the police budgets are taking a hammering which in turn means they will have to prioritise their spending, therefore shoplifters will not feature heavily in their plans.

And you may find this exacerbated by those who are already feeling the effects of the recession and are getting steadily more desperate and develop a feeling that they need to do something drastic in their efforts to maintain a decent quality of living.

These people may have a direct or indirect effect on the retail sector as they may be the ones committing the shoplifting act or they may have a professional thief steal to order, which one it is does not matter as the overall result is the same.

Retailers must realise that this will not sort itself out and the only real course of action open to them is to adopt a proactive approach to store security.

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