2022 Volume 59 Issue 2 Pages 1-16
This study examined workplace thefts (N＝292) involving primarily the theft of money, committed in the Hokuriku region (Toyama, Ishikawa, and Fukui prefectures) over the past decade for offender profiling. The results showed that the most frequent thieves were Japanese (98％), men (62％), unmarried (64％), and without a prior criminal record of theft (71％). The use of categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis resulted in the categorization of these thieves into the following three types. The “Store proceeds target” thieves (n＝125) stole takings from registers in the convenience stores, were mostly unmarried and active male employees, did not commit the theft with co-offenders. The “Employee money target” thieves (n＝123) generally stole the money from co-workers’ wallets in the locker rooms or break rooms of companies, factories, hospitals, and so on; they were mostly female active employees without co-offenders. The “Money and goods target” burglaries (n＝44) had a tendency to steal wallets or portable safes in the business offices of companies, factories, restaurants, and so on; such thefts were committed mostly by unmarried men who were former employees and had criminal record(s) of theft. The above results showed the possibility of offender profiling for workplace thefts in Japan.
