A Video Data Analysis of Pet Theft Incidents: An Examination of Offense Form, Situational Dynamics, & Offender Characteristics

ABSTRACT

Pet theft is a type of property crime, but pet-owner relationships include emotional dimensions and life experiences that can compound their loss far beyond property value. Their bondedness with humans includes companionship as well as healthy lifestyle and mental wellness benefits, which are abruptly halted at junctures of pet loss. Though pets are stolen for various motives (e.g. ransom, reward, resale, or breeding), this crime form has received little research attention from academic criminology and criminal justice. Toward building a line of inquiry, this paper empirically explores the phenomena of “dognapping” as dogs are the most frequently stolen pet and the only pet for which there is a database large enough for meaningful exploration. Content analysis of online posts and web-based video data (Twitter/X¹ posts, YouTube videos, and social media websites dedicated to missing and stolen pets) enabled a delineation of dog theft forms, offense dynamics, and offender characteristics. Findings regarding residential and commercial dog theft center discussion on situational crime prevention implications and additional research opportunities to further evidence and explore this relatively disregarded crime.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Size classifications are not governed by official standards. For the present study coders estimated dogs using small (<25 pounds), medium (25–60 pounds), and large (>60 pounds).

² The effectiveness of applying SCP techniques hinges on concentrating on a specific crime category (Clarke 2017), such as pet theft, rather than using the broader term “theft.” SCP has been implicated across various foci including the examination of gas poisoning related suicide in the UK (Clarke and Mayhew 1988), residential burglary (Poyner and Webb 1991), occupational corruption (Tunley et al. 2018), package thefts (Stickle et al. 2020), crimes in public transportation in El Salvador (Natarajan et al. 2015), and various additional topics (see Guerett, 2009 for a comprehensive review of 206 SCP projects).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Stickle

Ben Stickle, Ph.D., is a Professor of Criminal Justice Administration at Middle Tennessee State University and holds a Ph.D. in Justice Administration from the University of Louisville. Ben’s research focuses on property crime and policing, and he is widely recognized through his research contributions on metal theft, package theft, and emergent crime trends.

Brenda Vose

Brenda Vose (Ph.D., 2008, University of Cincinnati) is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of North Florida where she teaches and researches in the areas of community corrections, offender assessment and classification, offender treatment, evidence-based interventions, and law enforcement staffing. Dr. Vose currently serves on the Southern Criminal Justice Association Executive Board and on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Criminal Justice. Prior to joining the faculty at UNF, she was the Academic Director of the Online Master of Science Program in Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati. Her published work appears in Federal Probation, Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Criminology and Public Policy, American Journal of Criminal Justice, and Policing: An International Journal.

J. Mitchell Miller

J. Mitchell Miller is the John A. Delaney Presidential Professor at the University of North Florida, serving on the faculty of the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice. Specializing in the areas of drug crime and substance abuse treatment in justice settings, his current research includes mixed methods evaluations of various adult treatment courts across the nation toward the discovery and affirmation of evidence-based treatment and policing practices. He served as Editor of the American Journal of Criminal Justice over the past six years and served as the 38th President of the Southern Criminal Justice Association.