Could you give examples of the symbolic importance of of that which Atypical Theft Offenders steal?
……A#4: In our initial study we found that in nearly 30% of the cases there was a ‘cancer connection’, that is, the offenders had stolen in response to the occurrence of cancer in either the offender or a ‘significant other’. Cancer is viewed as the invasion of the host body’s normal cells by cancer cells, and the ‘stealing away’ of the healthy cells by the cancer cells. Shoplifting is the invasion of a host body (like a department store) and the stealing away of what belongs to the host body. Read further about the Loss Substitution by Stealing Hypothesis in the book and on other pages of this site.
