Abstract
This chapter examines the characteristics of metal thieves, finding that the highest proportion of metal thieves were 30-something white males, with some college experience, currently employed, and had past work experience in a field related to working with metals. An examination of motives for metal theft revealed that nearly all thieves drifted from scrapping into theft and generally enjoyed the high they received from or their addiction to committing theft. Metal theft motivations also include using the profits to pay bills and for other general expenses, play or fun money, and for drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. However, counter to common opinion, the connection between drug addiction and metal theft is weak. Finally, the current study was unable to corroborate the price-theft hypothesis.
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Stickle, B.F. (2017). Metal Thieves. In: Metal Scrappers and Thieves. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57502-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57502-5_7
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