Charlotte Wildman

Artist Lucy Sparrow’s 2016 exhibition Shoplifting, at London’s Lawrence Alkin Gallery, highlighted the most shoplifted items from UK supermarkets. PA Images/Alamy

Shoplifting is now at record levels. Here’s how it went from a crime punishable by death to police ‘turning a blind eye’

The past 300 years show us that shoplifting is a crime rooted in complex societal as well as economic issues. But who deserves our sympathy: the robbers or the robbed?

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