Reported crimes at Kenwood Towne Centre rise during holiday shopping season
Criminal justice expert weighs in on shoplifting at brick-and-mortar stores
According to crime data stated in an msn.com article, the most reported crime at Kenwood Towne Centre is theft with 584 incidents since 2021; and the biggest spikes occur from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31.
“People don’t want to come to malls if they feel like they may be in danger, and so crime is an issue,” crime researcher Cory Haberman said in the article which was syndicated from a Fox 19 news segment.
Haberman, an associate professor of criminal justice, is the director of the Institute of Crime Science in the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati.
While the segment points out that for various reasons many brick-and-mortar stores across the country have shuttered, the town centre has managed to stay afloat; and appears to be thriving this holiday season.
But it has not been without its retail theft woes.
In 2022, a group of robbers entered one of the luxury flagship stores and stole $100,000 in merchandise.
Although the segment states that the mall itself reports crime there as down, several theories apply to why retail crime has been trending up across the board, says Haberman.
One theory is the financial instability that occurred during the COVID–19 pandemic, he said.
Featured image by iStock photo/FreshSplash.
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