Negative peer pressure: Shoplifting

Martijn said in his first blog that there exists positive and negative peer pressure. An extreme example of negative peer pressure is shoplifting. Stealing products while you are shopping is a crime.

One reason why teenagers  steal things is because they don’t have anything else to do. This is a way to ask for attention from their friends and family.  When a child has an experience with shoplifting, it’s not easy to stop them.

But also peer pressure plays an important role in shoplifting. As Jolien said before teenagers want to have designer clothes because their friends have them. They also want new and improving products like MP3 players, games,…

I think some of them are confronted with a lack of money, so they see only one option: stealing.

Others have enough money, but do it for the thrill or to impress their friends.

In my opinion some teenagers start to steal things because their best friends do it and they don’t want to be a loser.

(Source : http://www.familyfirstaid.org/shoplifting-statistics.html)

Angelie Vancoillie