Sophisticated Stealing: A New Criminal Enterprise

Going Global – the growth of Organised Retail Crime (ORC)

Already widely recognised as a growing criminal trend, ORC is going global with rising rates of thefts being reported across all geographic regions around the world. As a result, retailers are under greater pressure to complement technology with processes and investigative resources that can help prevent, deter and reduce the impact of the problem.

What is Organised Retail Crime (ORC)?

ORC is commonly identified as groups or gangs of individuals who coordinate their activities to illegally obtain large quantities of desirable retail merchandise through both theft and fraudulent activities. ORC gangs differ from opportunist shoplifters by operating and organizing as a professional business with quotas, revenue plans and managing inventory – often running underground activities as part of a commercial enterprise where they resell or exchange the stolen merchandise for cash or drugs.

In the US, the Organised Retail Crime Act of 2008 defines ORC as the ‘acquisition of retail merchandise by illegal means for the purposes of reselling items into the marketplace’. It is agreed that ORC activities will contain at least one of the following four basic elements...

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