SHOPLIFTING AND OTHER THEFTS BY USUALLY HONEST ADULTS

WHO THIS WEB PAGE WILL INTEREST
This web page will be of interest to both PROFESSIONALS (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, probation and parole officers, loss prevention personnel, as well as defense and prosecuting attorneys, and judges) and
LAYPERSONS (the theft offenders themselves, their families and friends, and others) who want to understand why usually honest persons would, seemingly nonsensibly and bizarrely, risk so much in so many aspects of their lives, for (frequently) relatively so little, in terms of monetary or material gain!

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Dr. Will Cupchik presented a paper on the topic of this site, at the XXIVth International Congress on Law and Mental Health/International Mental Health Summit, held June 1999. Dr. Cupchik's talk was titled "Why Essentially Honest People Shoplift or Commit Other Acts Of Theft".

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In what follows on this site you will learn:
-why usually honest people steal, and
-how to be of assistance to an 'atypical theft offender', whether that person be your client, a loved one, or even yourself.

(A note re consultations, assessments and/or treatment with Dr. Will Cupchik:
Dr. Cupchik frequently receives inquiries from lawyers, clinicians and the offenders themselves .

Individuals from the U.S. and elsewhere have come to Toronto for a concentrated number (10 to 15) of clinical sessions with Dr. Cupchik. In such cases, an attempt is made to schedule as many sessions as required over just a two or three days in order to minimize time-away-from-home and the costs for these clients.

Other individuals have requested consultations from a distance. Telephone calls and emails have served to assist persons from as as far away as Australia, and from many parts of the United States and Canada, to better understand and deal with their issues in the area of atypical theft behavior.

Before contacting Dr. Cupchik directly, however, please read the remainder of this web site carefully.

By the way, Dr. Cupchik is always interested in hearing from individuals, by email or snail mail, who wish to share their personal experiences with atypical theft behavior. While he may not reply to each message, he certainly does read them all, and this material may contribute further to his clinical investigations in this area.

Media Interest In Dr. Cupchik's Clinical Work:
A considerable amount of print, radio, television and internet media attention in the U.S., Canada, England and Europe has been expressed in Dr. Cupchik's work with essentially honest persons who have committed acts of essentially bizarre or nonsensical shoplifting or other sorts of theft. Requests for interviews should be made directly by contacting Dr. Cupchik by e-mail, or preferably, by telephone at (416) 928-2262.
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The book, WHY HONEST PEOPLE SHOPLIFT OR COMMIT OTHER ACTS OF THEFT: ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT OF 'ATYPICAL THEFT OFFENDERS', published in 1997 by Tagami Communications, Toronto (357 pages), is distributed world-wide through the University of Toronto Press Distribution Centre, via its warehouses in the U.S. and Canada.

This book may be ordered by individual purchasers from your favourite bookstore or online from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Chapters, or directly from the distributor, the University of Toronto Press Distribution Centre at 1-800-565-523.

Libraries and booksellers may order directly through Baker & Taylor or from the University of Toronto Press Distribution Centre.

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ALL VISITERS TO THIS SITE PLEASE NOTE.
IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU SCROLL DOWN THROUGH THIS ENTIRE WEB PAGE, WHICH IS ORDERED IN A REASONABLY LOGICAL AND OPTIMALLY INFORMATIVE SEQUENCE.

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DR. WILL CUPCHIK'S CLINICAL INVESTIGATIONS
INTO ATYPICAL THEFT BEHAVIOR

A registered psychologist in private practice in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Will Cupchik previously held the position of Psychologist-In-Charge, Forensic Outpatient Psychological Services, at the Clarke Institute Of Psychiatry, in Toronto where he was employed for a dozen years. He began his clincial investigations of atypical theft behavior twenty-six years ago, in 1974 while working on the Clarke Institute's forensic service with his co-investigator, Dr. D.J. Atcheson, senior psychiatrist on the same forensic service at the time. Their first article on this subject, titled "Shoplifting: An Occasional Crime Of The Moral Majority", appeared in the Bulletin of the American Academy Of Psychiatry And The Law, in 1983.

Also of considerable importance in dealing with generally honest persons who steal is a treatment approach that Dr. Cupchik developed called Reintrojection Therapy, a procedure which allows for the altering of the internalized relationship which an individual has with an important person in his or her life, past or present, including and especially parents and other authority figures. This approach is also described in detail in the book. His first article on this therapeutic technique, entitled "Reintrojection Therapy: A Procedure for Altering Parental Introjects", was published in the journal, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, in 1984.

The book "WHY HONEST PEOPLE SHOPLIFT..." summarizes Dr. Cupchik's clinical investigations into the seemingly bizarre and/or nonsensical acts of shoplifting, break-enter-theft, fraud, and other kinds of theft that have been carried out by persons who, except for their theft offenses, had been justifiably viewed as generally law-abiding, socially responsible, ethical, and contributing members of society. These persons, whom Drs. Will Cupchik and Don Atcheson termed Atypical Theft Offenders, have, nevertheless, shocked themselves as well as their friends, relatives and co-workers -- by stealing. They are invariably at a loss to explain satisfactorily why they behaved in such an illegal fashion.

Definition: 'Atypical Theft Offenders' are generally honest and ethical persons who should -- and do-- know better, yet who risk their personal and professional reputations, and very possibly their working and/or family lives, for what is often (though not always) very little material gain, through stealing.

The book makes it clear why generally honest persons, including many of those who have been misdiagnosed as suffering from 'kleptomania', actually steal. It also explains why the diagnosis of 'kleptomania' has often been greatly -- and erroneously-- overused, and describes how to provide more suitable assessments and effective treatment in these cases.

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WHAT YOU WILL FIND BELOW
ON THIS WEB PAGE

1. The Book's Table Of Contents
2. Book Reviews
3. Prices & the Special Internet Offers
4. OrderingThe Book From Anywhere In The World.
5. Article by Dr. Cupchik on the subject of why usually honest people steal
6.FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

......Q#1: What do you mean by the term, ' Atypical Theft Offenders' and what kinds of theft do they commit?

.....Q#2: Can we really come to understand why some people commit apparently nonsensical acts of theft?

.....Q#3: What do you mean by 'the psychodynamic elegance of atypical theft behavior'?

.....Q#4: Could you give examples of the symbolic importance of of that which Atypical Theft Offenders steal?

.....Q#5: What is the difference between most Atypical Theft Offenders and those who are said to suffer from kleptomania, and why are the former so frequently mislabelled as the latter?

.....Q# 6: How can these Atypical Theft Offenders be helped to stop their theft behavior?

.....Q-7: How is Compulsive Shopping related to Atypical Shoplifting?

.....Q-8: Do you offer consultations to out-of-towners?

7. Curriculum Vitae

8. Media Interest in Dr. Cupchik's clinical findings and his book

9. The best ways to contact Dr. Cupchik for either consultations or media purposes

10. Workshops

11. Clinical Updates

12. More about Dr. Cupchik's Consultations
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THE BOOK'S ORGANIZATION & INTENDED AUDIENCES

"WHY HONEST PEOPLE SHOPLIFT OR COMMIT OTHER ACTS OF THEFT: Assessment and Treatment of 'Atypical Theft Offenders' ", has been organized into five parts so as to best serve as a comprehensive resource, one that provides information about the findings of Dr. Cupchik's two major studies of such theft offenses (the first completed in 1983 (34 cases), and the more recent 1996 study (36 cases)), with abundant material that is of use to the following readers:
:clinicians (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc...)
:defense and prosecuting attorneys
:judges
:probation and parole officers
:loss prevention personnel
:employee assistance plan counselors
:retailers
:the offenders themselves, their 'significant others', relatives and friends, as well as
:lay persons who would like to understand why generally honest people would offend against their own moral and ethical code, and so often risk so very much in terms of their careers, their reputations, their relationships for what is often (but not always) so very little -- in monetary terms.

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