The season to be jolly is also the season when one of America’s most common crimes reaches its peak. Shoplifting, once associated mainly with the holiday season, is a yeararound problem now. Security consultants concede though, that the practice of whisking merchandise from store shelf to purse or pocket still is most common in the seasons when customers crowd the stores. In a December 1979 survey, the Wall Street Journal quoted a New York security expert as saying about a fifth of the nation’s yearly shoplifting takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas, with the Holiday heist totaling “at least $1.6 billion.” Who are the pilferers’? Teens traditionally have been the most commonlycaught shoplifters. But stores are vexed by the number of adult men and women. And the elderly have constituted a notable new group during the sustained period of inflation and budget-stretching. The problem also extends to store employees, who, according to one security official, often figure in the merchandise “shrinkage.” Only a small percentage of the shoplifters are arrested and the industry is concerned with finding ways to tighten anti-theft defenses. Some states have effective anti-shoplifting laws, but penalties usually are minor since the crime is treated as a misdemeanor Essentially, watching over his merchandise becomes the job of the merchant, who employs such devices as store detectives, mirrors that reveal the actions of shoppers. etc. One area in which arrest can be costly is loss of reputation. the Journal article suggets. Most often, persons nabbed are photographed, fingerprinted and banned from the stores in which they’ve been caught. Shoplifting is of public concern because merchants often have no other alternatives than to pass the loss on to the consumers through increased prices. As those concerned mull defenses against the crime, maybe it’s time to drop the soft-sounding termlof “shoplifting” with its mini-violation connotation and speak of the practice for what it is theft. outright stealing. At least this might cause would-be participants to reflect in advance on the severity and full implications of the deed they are contemplating.