how do you stop a child from stealing?

Question

10 year old girl.cant keep her hands of other peoples stuff.found stealing from a shop. threatond with police and not worked. how do i get her to stop befor it get worse?

i have been to cops and we have no family probs other than the norm and a sick little boy. shes had counciling. she has been made to go back to shops and none have worked. im cross as she stole a 200 quid off me and gave it to a mate. yea shes pissed with me as i had2 more kids after her.and she is not the center of life. she has love and propper boundries. this is the one thing that lets a good well behaved loving child down.

Answer 1

People steal out of fear; either the fear of loss, or the excitement of fear. Her fear is thus the real issue, and you need to learn what it is she fears. It may be she feels she needs those things to make her happy, and fears that if she doesn't have them she will be sad. It may be she feels she needs the excitement, because she fears her life without that excitement would be less enjoyable. Or it maybe she feels she needs to do those things to fit-in-with/impress her friends, and fears if she does not they will not like her as much, or not at all.

Sit down and have a talk with her, and learn why she does it. Then talk to her about all the ways in which it could affect her life; how others will view her [don't turn your back on her, or invite her over to your house], other boys [they don't want to be with a loser, and their parents wouldn't want them dating someone like that], teachers [grades in school are often times arbitrarily given based upon how well they like you], business owners [she may wish to get a job there some day], and life in general [perhaps even prison someday, because the whole world seems to be against her].

Once you understand what her fears are, and thus what would attract her to other alternative gratifications, it will allow you to come up solutions that "she'll want" instead. For if there are things that can give us the same feelings in life, without the negative factors, who in their right mind wouldn't want to do them instead?

Answer 2

Take her back to the shop where she stole from and make her apologize and return the items, she will feel so embarressed. Let her know you love her no matter what she does and that her behaviour is upsetting you. If it does not stop get a police officer to come round and give her a warning and good talking to ... sort it out while she is young, before she hits the terrible teens.

Answer 3

the first fact to note is that children radiate what they see in their envoironment , what a parent does is to make sure that they guide them to appreciating the right one. the envoironment certainly is very polluted and most child that cannot discern because of their age are bound to pick up different habits maybe good or bad , but in this case bad because they gain something from it so to speak. stealing is a very bad thing for child to develop let alone digest. so the first thing to do is determine the child s level in stealing once you able to this you should also look at the cause of this act because if you can deal with the root of the problem you can handle the child categorically that is with knowledge .once you have been able to take away the root you can begin to deal with child . a child at about 10 years of age might not respond to words but will respond to punishment and this should be corrective in nature you might also consider floging depending on the level of theft.but always remember to always after the punishment let them know they are still loved.

Answer 4

Did you make her go in and confront the manager of the store and return the item to him.
This worked with my 7 year old many years ago. she had to pay the manager for what she stole also.
She was so embarrassed that she never tried it again.
If the threat of the police don't work call and see if you can take her to view a juvenile facility and let her see what she will be getting into. where she will be staying. no radios, no Cd's, no phones, no extras just necessities.

Answer 5

First of all you need to change your attitude, it sounds rather agitated towards this girl. I understand that you may be at the end of your tether with this problem, but believe me it will run its course. Most kids around that age go through that stage, its like a compulsion to them, and they wont stop no matter what is said. It wont take her long to grow out of it, just because she is doing this now doesnt mean she will be a master criminal by the age of 15. Just keep letting her know its wrong and deal with it like you would any other punishment for naughty doings. Take away her pocket money, ground her maybe but be assured that it wont last for long even if the punishments dont seem to work. Good luck and get a safe.

Answer 6

At this age it's more attention seeking that taking something for the sake of it. You'll probably find she has family problems and parents that aren't around or don't care. Suggest you call social services rather than the cops next time, perhaps they can get to root of problem.

Answer 7

Perhaps if you explain to your daughter that by stealing from shops, she is costing you money, it may help.
Try this tactic…
Shop owners are people just like you and I.
They have families to clothe and to feed.
The shop is their livelihood… The money earned from what is sold, is used to help to pay the bills, and to clothe and feed the family.
Goods that are sold in the shop, originally have to be bought and paid for by the shop owner. They are then sold at a slightly higher price, to enable the shop owner to make enough profit to help look after his family, and to pay the costs associated with running the business.
Unfortunately, when people steal from the shop, it forces the shop owner to have to raise the price of the goods he sells, because the goods that were stolen still have to be paid for in order for the business to make a profit.
The more goods that are stolen… the less profit the shop makes… and the higher the prices that the shop owner has to charge.
You buy things from the shop…
You are being forced to pay higher prices, because people like your daughter, are stealing !!!

Answer 8

This little girl is screaming for help .... No offense to you but she has something going on , you need to gain her trust and find out whats up .. are you able to spend quality time just with her ? Could someone else take your other kids for a weekend , maybe a grandparent ? Go a walk or something together , my girls love to come walks with me (and the dog)we talk for hours on end about everything , they tell me things , ask advice and sometimes i have to keep my cool with it but i am just glad they know they can talk to me ....

Answer 9

this is what I did to my son he was 9 at the time he took some stuff from a store when I got home he had put this candy into the bag I asked him where he got it he said from the store so I stopped what I was doing put him into the car and took him back to the store and asked to speak to the manger I then made him tell the manger what he did and he gave him a good talk en too he never took any thing else again this is what I did to my Daughter and she was 15 I took her to go school shopping for her school supplies and I'm up at the register paying for her things and we get ready to walk out the the alarm goes off I told her to get back into the store and the manger came out she was crying and he said to me well its not that much and she looks scared to death so well just let her go I said no you will call the police and have her arrested and he looked at me like I was nuts when the police got there thy handcuffed her and took her to jail thy called me and asked me when I was coming to pick her up I said when I feel like it I let her sit in the jail cell for 7 hours then when I went to get her she had a court date when she went to the Court Day he made her go to this class for 8 weeks that she had to do a bunch of stuff and also call a buddy once a week plus I had to pay $500.00 the state of Florida for making the store prosecute her after it was all over with about 6 months had went by and I had to go to the store I asked her do you want to go she said yes but when we got there she left her purse in the car and never took any thing else again ever this was so hard for me to do to my kids but I'll tell you it's better to do it when thy get caught or they grow up and take every thing that's not theres

Answer 10

It's pointless threatening a child with the police, you have to actually do it. Call round to your local police station and explain to them the situation, you could arrange a time for them to talk to her and maybe even take her round the station. The police are good with things like this, it's part of their crime prevention thing. A friend of mine did it with her daughter, it really worked. They showed her round the police cells, cautioned her and even took her finger prints!