When Ladies Go A-Thieving: Middle-class Shoplifters in the Victorian Department Store

• NCJ Number: 127458
• Author(s): E S Abelson
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 301 pages
• Sale Source: Oxford University Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Shoplifting by middle-class women in the late 19th century is examined in terms of its relationship to the development of the consumer culture of the late 19th century and attitudes regarding gender and social class.

Abstract

The large department stores that developed in the 19th century educated people to want objects and played a crucial role in determining the essentials of middle-class life and aspirations. This fundamental social change created tensions for middle-class women, who were labeled by physicians as kleptomaniacs, using the language of physical and mental illness. Lawyers, judges, merchants, and newspaper reporters accepted this diagnosis, believing females to be biologically inferior and regarding all shopping women as potential shoplifters. Although the Victorian stereotype persists, attitudes have changed somewhat during the 20th century. Shoplifting and its prevention remain major issues in retailing, but females are no longer seen automatically as potential thieves. Case examples, chapter reference notes, and index