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The first wave of the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) interviewed a nationally representative sample of 9,000 teenagers who were between the ages of 12-16 at year-end 1996. The first round questions asked for a complete retrospective (Have you ever?) of their delinquent or deviant behaviors and 26% of the youth indicated that they had already shoplifted (taken something worth up to $50 from a store without paying for it) at some point before the ages of 12-16. However, according to the 2006 OJJDP Juvenile Offenders and Victims Report by the end of the study, some 43% of youth reported engaging in shoplifting or theft under $50 by the time they were 17 years of age.
The Josephson Institute of Ethics recently released their 2008 Report Card: The Ethics of American Youth. The biennial study found that 30% of high school youth reported shoplifting from a store in the past 12 months; up from 28% in 2006. Additionally, 15% admitted to shoplifting at least twice in the past 12 months; up from 14 % in 2006. Ironically, the students in both surveys reported high self-appraisals of their character with over 90% saying these were satisfied with their ethics and character!
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