When Celebrities (and other High Profile) People Shoplift

Over more than twenty twenty years Dr. Cupchik has been interviewed by all manner of media who were seeking to understand why a particular prominent person or other would have committed the act of shoplifting. 

When  celebrities or other prominent or wealthy adults shoplift, almost everyone - from the theft offender to their lawyers and the courts, as well as the general public who read or hear about the matter through the media - is at a loss to understand why these persons would do such a thing, especially with so much at risk in terms of the consequences of the public besmirching of their reputation and their personal humiliation, as well as the possible loss of  income or position (as when the offender is a media personality or a licensed professional).

DISPELLING MYTH # 1: DO THEY DO IT FOR THE THRILL?   

Too often, these high-profile individuals are presumed, by laypersons and occasionally even some professionals, to have shoplifted 'as a lark' or 'for the thrill or excitement' of the act of stealing and getting away with it. 

In fact, however, in most cases, the truer understanding of the matter is hardly that simple. After all, the fact is that many of these individuals have financial resources that would allow them to seek out all manner of exciting and (if they so desire) even dangerous, adrenalin pumping 'thrills', including everything from downhill skiing or snowboarding at St. Moritz, diving among shipwrecks in the Bermuda Triangle, to extreme sports and other potentially hazardous yet very thrilling activities (e.g., learning to  fly their own airplanes, hang gliding, etc...), all the way to engaging in 'out of this world' space travel on the international space station, without jeopardizing their reputations or careers. 

In actual fact, when any generally law-abiding, hard-working, contributing members of society shoplift, Dr. Will Cupchik's nearly thirty years of clinical investigations indicate that they do so for far deeper reasons than 'for the thrill of it'. 

After all, would anyone really accept the simplistic idea that the major reason someone would put a loaded revolver to his or her head and 'play' Russian roulette  would be for the 'thrill' of do so? Hardly! 

Yet by shoplifting, some prominent/famous persons are  doing something quite analogous; they are playing 'Russian roulette' with their reputations and/or careers.  Anyone who would choose to do that almost certainly has other personal issues driving their behavior than merely 'thrill seeking', and the crucial question to ask is, "Why would this person, with so much to lose, risk their livelihoods and good name by engaging in a high-risk and illegal behavior? The answers almost invariably lay much deeper than the level of 'thrill-seeking'.

As has been repeatedly found to be the case in hundreds of instances of atypical theft behavior by usually honest persons, it is such issues as major stressors, including perhaps ,what the offender has perceived as major, actual or anticipated, unfair personally meaningful losses (such as the actual or anticipated loss of a spouse of a child, key new working situation, etc...), and/or poor coping skills around dealing with anger, rejection, loss, etc..., that may lead such an individual to act out, via stealing. 

It is, of course, very important that such theft behavior be properly understood so that effective treatment may be offered and better ways of dealing with such stressors in the future developed, without which there is a real possibility that the person may re-offend again at some times in the future.

As indicated elsewhere on this website, and discussed in detail in Dr. Cupchik's book, Why Honest People Shoplift Of Commit Other Acts Of Theft, manyAtypical Theft Offenders have been found to have experienced unusual, highly stressful or traumatic situations just prior to the acts of shoplifting, as well as  unusual, highly stressful or traumatic situations when they were much younger, and both the more recent and much  earlier (and usually still unresolved) issues must be uncovered and dealt with in therapeutic ways, so as to minimize the likelihood that there will be further occasions of acting out by stealing. 

It is imperative to note that unless the genuine underlying reasons for such acting out behavior are uncovered and dealt with appropriately and in depth, then the likelihood of further acting out by stealing at some time in the future remains a very distinct possibility. 

The one-on-one Intensive Intervention  Program developed and run by Dr. Cupchik aims to accomplish the necessary work in a short period, or at least to make a crucial beginning in this effort. Dr. Cupchik may provide consultations to therapists who continue to work with clients who have attended the three-day Intensive Intervention Program.