Crimes such as employee theft of merchandise or customer or customer theft (shoplifting) - Term Paper Example

Theft of merchandize by employees accounts for approximately $50 billion losses on yearly basis, with small retail shops being the most affected (Hollinger, 2013). However, large business enterprises also suffer great losses but compared to small enterprises, they have a higher capacity to absorb the losses hence can stay longer in business to unearth such theft. Small retailers have no such capacity and hence, regular theft ends up ruining the business completely. It is estimated that more than 75% of employees in the US engage in this atrocity, in one form or the other, hence indicating that there is strong need to reevaluate strategies being used by businesses to curb this type of crime (Walsh, 2000).

This paper is a critical evaluation on employee theft as a major dilemma in business. Employees are an important resource for a business, whether in production, marketing, supply or even in retail business. This is due to the fact that they provide services that cannot be performed by any other mechanism in exchange for remuneration among other financial and nonmonetary gains. As an employer, the most important goal is to maximize profits and in businesses that entail buying and selling, profits can only be obtained by ensuring that every item leaving the stores is fully paid for and if not, it has to be accounted for.

However, statistics indicate that this is not usually the case. Numerous products are being stolen by employees, who are entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining and managing businesses. 75% of employees in the US are stealing from their employers, not just once but repeatedly). No wonder cumulative losses can reach up to more than USD 50 billion on yearly basis (Walsh, 2000). With this trend, it is most likely that more and more businesses will continue to collapse and this can only be hurting, not only for business owners but also the global economy as a result of