> It's unclear to me that if a store realized at the end of the day that $80 worth of toothpaste was missing, they'd file a police report. It's unclear to me t

> It's unclear to me that if a store realized at the end of the day that $80 worth of toothpaste was missing, they'd file a police report. It's unclear to me they'd file a police report if their security guard walk someone caught someone walk out the door with a couple hundred dollars worth of items. The retail industry excessively monitors "shrinkage" because it gets to write it off (which means it's in their interests to over-report, not under-report, at least on the accounting side.) From the article: > Even the National Retail Federation, the primary lobbying group for the retail industry, is acknowledging past reports have been inflated and retracting a key point in one of its widely cited reports about retail crime. (These industry reports are frequently cited by lawmakers, journalists and others about retail crime.) Both a study of police reports and comments from retail lobbyist groups say that retail theft is exaggerated. > It would be like if you were fearful that police stopped caring about domestic violence - and then someone cited police stats on domestic violence arrests to you. Of course the statistic is going to go down if people have less of a reason to go to you for help. Under-reporting is extensively studied, particularly for intimate partner violence, allowing for estimates for adjusting. If you can think of some potential "gotcha" to a study, research, etc - chances are the professional researchers in that field have as well.