Lawmakers seek boosted penalties for shoplifters amid post-pandemic rise, but advocates warn steeper sentences unlikely to deter crime. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Assembly lawmakers will weigh heightened penalties for shoplifters and new restrictions on gift card sales on Thursday amid a recent rise in retail theft.
The bipartisan bill before the Assembly Public Safety and Preparedness Committee would enhance penalties for leading shoplifting rings, allow extended sentences for repeat offenders, and elevate assaults against retail workers to a more serious charge, among other things.
“It’s probably not the end-all solution, but certainly it’s a step that we’ve got to take to try to deter this stuff from happening, because it’s a real problem,” said Assemblyman Alex Sauickie (R-Ocean), the bill’s prime Republican sponsor.
The legislation would allow extended sentencing for individuals convicted of shoplifting three times in a 10-year period or within 10 years of their release from confinement and upgrade penalties for leading a retail crime ring to carry between 10 and 20 years’ imprisonment.
It also allows law enforcement to aggregate the cost of goods stolen by suspects within a year, allowing prosecutors to levy more serious charges against serial shoplifters regardless of previous convictions.
The bid to raise penalties comes amid a recent spike in thefts following the pandemic. In 2023, law enforcement agencies reported 102,724 instances of larceny, up from 91,942 in 2019 and a pandemic slump that generally brought crime down overall in 2020 and 2021, according to crime statistics maintained by the FBI.
The bill’s sponsors hoped more stringent penalties would deter would-be shoplifters, especially as neighboring states like New York and Pennsylvania raise their own penalties for retail theft and, Sauickie feared, push shoplifters to target New Jersey.
“It’s something that I think we’ve got to address. I think it’s only going to get worse in New Jersey because our surrounding states have addressed it and made the penalties for organized retail theft even worse, so that means New Jersey becomes low-hanging fruit,” he said.
Another provision would elevate assault charges against retail workers performing their duties, mirroring protections for first responders, bus drivers, and judges, among others. The bill also makes clear reselling stolen merchandise online falls under the state’s definition of fencing.
Some warned higher penalties were unlikely to deter crime, noting research from the U.S. Department of Justice that found prison sentences allowed some offenders to grow more sophisticated in their methods and noted the real or perceived likelihood of being caught was more likely to stop crime.
“There’s no data backing extensive lengthy sentences being helpful for deterrence. It feels like the same logic as three-strike laws and mandatory minimums where folks are going away for long periods of time,” said Sarah Fajardo, policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.
New Jersey lawmakers who have recently approved legislation raising penalties for a range of crimes — including car thefts, certain burglaries, and assaults involving bodily fluids — were reaching for “antiquated, outdated policies instead of proven solutions,” Fajardo said.
Boosting education funding, housing availability, and mental health treatment options would do more to reduce crime, she said.
Reducing poverty would also help cut crime by eliminating the financial need that drives some to commit theft, said Ashanti Jones, a policy analyst in the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice’s criminal justice reform program.
“We have to recognize that when we’re talking about theft here, we’re talking about poverty, and in some shape or form, we have to address that. That’s not to say accountability is out of the question,” she said. “We have to think about what will actually solve the problem: How can we get crime to go down? Increasing penalties doesn’t do that.”
The bill contains other provisions meant to reduce gift card scams. It would require retailers that carry gift cards to train their workers on how to spot attempts at fraud involving gift cards and post notices highlighting the risk of such scams.
It would require more extensive packaging for gift cards that are not chip-enabled, exclusive to the retailer selling them, or secured in a place only accessible by employees. It also demands stricter record-keeping of gift card sales to third-party resellers and requires gift card issuers to provide law enforcement with evidence related to theft upon law enforcement’s receipt of an official report.
“We’re not trying to overregulate it either. It’s just saying this is a big issue. There needs to be training on detecting scams with gift cards,” Sauickie said.
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