Long-terms trends in most forms of reported personal crime are downwards in the UK, but media concern has been raised recently about what is claimed to be a sharp upturn in theft from shops, otherwise known as shoplifting offences. Is this the latest media moral panic about crime – or is something really changing?
At a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Committee in the House of Lords in September 2024, Professor Emmaline Taylor from City, University of London, gave oral evidence on the matter (House of Lords 2024). Taylor is a criminologist by training, but other social scientists – including sociologists – offer evidence at parliamentary committee hearings on a wide range of social issues. This often occurs out of the public eye, but it is one important way of demonstrating how social science academics produce up-to-date research findings which can be applied and help inform and shape government policy.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
