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Should we laud or lament self-help and shaming sentences for shoplifters?

By Douglas A. Berman

Today's New York Times has this fascinating article, headlined "Stores? Treatment of Shoplifters Tests Rights," about a kind of corporate punishment for shoplifters that has being imported to New York City from China.  The full article is a worth reading, and this start provides a window into all the interesting legal issues the piece raises: The A & N Food Market on Main Street in Flushing, Queens, has an almost entirely Chinese clientele.  The inventory includes live eels, turtles and frogs, frozen duck tongue and canned congee.  These goods, like products sold in every neighborhood of the city, attract their share of shoplifters.  But A & N Food Market has an unusual way of dealing with the problem. First, suspected shoplifters caught by the store?s security guards or staff members have their identification seized...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 22, 2010 (boomark / email).