Five-Step Procedure for Stealing

Description of the Strategy

The prevalence of stealing among children presenting at clinical settings has been estimated as high as 60%, making it one of the more common problems brought to the attention of mental health professionals. Developmental studies show that stealing activity tends to reach an early peak around age 3 and a later one between the ages of 8 and 11. Beyond early childhood, stealing rarely presents as an isolated issue; its clinical importance derives in part from its association with a broader constellation of conduct problems. The longer stealing persists, the greater the risk that it will represent an early step on a developmental progression toward chronic and increasingly serious antisocial behavior, usually combined with academic and occupational underachievement. The potential costs of this problem, therefore, are borne not only by the children and their families but also by the entire community.

Efforts to reduce stealing must contend with the difficulty of identifying the perpetrator of a (usually) covert act. An additional obstacle to monitoring covert stealing is parents' frequent receptiveness to alternative explanations for their child's new possessions, such as finding, receiving a gift, or “borrowing.” Negative consequences for stealing are, therefore, typically not reliably or promptly delivered. For these reasons, a common first step in intervening with children who steal is to transfer the burden of proof to the child: Anything in the possession of the child that does not clearly belong to him or her is presumed to be stolen. This strategy renders diversionary tactics on the part of the child ineffective, a lesson considered sufficiently important to outweigh the occasional unjust accusation that may result.

Behavioral interventions for children who steal have usually involved some combination of confessing to the victim of the theft, restitution (payment for or return of the stolen object), and sometimes additional punishment for stealing or rewards for alternative behavior. The procedure developed at our clinic incorporates a confession and apology to the victim, restitution (i.e., return or replacement of the stolen object), two levels of overcorrection, and praise for alternative behavior. We institute a “presumption of guilt,” as described above: Children are given no more than a few minutes to explain the possession of any object unfamiliar to the parent or other authority figure, and if the adult is not convinced that the child came by it honestly, the child is treated as if the object were stolen. By way of explanation, children are told that because they have stolen before, people can no longer assume that they are behaving honestly, and they must now earn their trust by remaining above suspicion.

Step 1: Identifying Instances of Stealing

First, search the child's bedroom with the child present. We recommend an amnesty for any stolen items found during this first search: If the child assists in getting the object returned to its rightful owner, no further consequences, as described in Steps 2 to 5, are imposed. The amnesty is intended as a gesture of fairness to the child so as not to impose penalties the child was unaware of at the time the item was stolen. The child then starts the program with a clean slate and full awareness of the consequences for any further acts of stealing.

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