Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions

Robberies of New Zealand convenience stores for tobacco products spiked between 2016 and 2017. According to media reports, many robberies involved the use of weapons and resulted in injury to retailers. We conducted a content analysis of all online media articles containing commentary about these r...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Marewa Glover, Robin Shepherd, Hamed Nazari, Kyro Selket
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SG Publishing 2021-12-01
Series:Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/article/view/210
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author Marewa Glover
Robin Shepherd
Hamed Nazari
Kyro Selket
author_facet Marewa Glover
Robin Shepherd
Hamed Nazari
Kyro Selket
author_sort Marewa Glover
collection DOAJ
description Robberies of New Zealand convenience stores for tobacco products spiked between 2016 and 2017. According to media reports, many robberies involved the use of weapons and resulted in injury to retailers. We conducted a content analysis of all online media articles containing commentary about these robberies, published between 2014 and 2019, to identify the perceived causes of the increase in robberies for tobacco and remedies implemented or demanded. The commentators in the articles were categorized into three groups of stakeholders: elites, grassroots, and interest groups. Overall, there was a mismatch between perceiving the primary cause to be socially and economically determined and suggesting solutions that were mostly situational shop level changes or tertiary prevention strategies, such as more and harsher policing. A further mismatch was that existing policing policy was not adapted to balance the perverse consequences of the tobacco excise tax increases. Early commentators tended to deflect blame away from their own sector. Later commentary converged to agree that the high tobacco excise tax was a critical causal factor.
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spelling doaj.art-9fe6796025194c99b6c4788a55377c1a2023-12-02T09:47:50ZengSG PublishingJournal of Community Safety and Well-Being2371-42982021-12-016410.35502/jcswb.210Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutionsMarewa Glover0Robin Shepherd1Hamed Nazari2Kyro Selket3Centre of Research Excellence: Indigenous Sovereignty & Smoking, Auckland, New ZealandCentre of Research Excellence: Indigenous Sovereignty & Smoking, Auckland, New ZealandIndependent researcher, Hamilton, New ZealandCentre of Research Excellence: Indigenous Sovereignty & Smoking, Auckland, New Zealand Robberies of New Zealand convenience stores for tobacco products spiked between 2016 and 2017. According to media reports, many robberies involved the use of weapons and resulted in injury to retailers. We conducted a content analysis of all online media articles containing commentary about these robberies, published between 2014 and 2019, to identify the perceived causes of the increase in robberies for tobacco and remedies implemented or demanded. The commentators in the articles were categorized into three groups of stakeholders: elites, grassroots, and interest groups. Overall, there was a mismatch between perceiving the primary cause to be socially and economically determined and suggesting solutions that were mostly situational shop level changes or tertiary prevention strategies, such as more and harsher policing. A further mismatch was that existing policing policy was not adapted to balance the perverse consequences of the tobacco excise tax increases. Early commentators tended to deflect blame away from their own sector. Later commentary converged to agree that the high tobacco excise tax was a critical causal factor. https://www.journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/article/view/210Taxconvenience storescrime preventionpolicing
spellingShingle Marewa Glover
Robin Shepherd
Hamed Nazari
Kyro Selket
Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions
Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being
Tax
convenience stores
crime prevention
policing
title Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions
title_full Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions
title_fullStr Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions
title_full_unstemmed Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions
title_short Store robberies for tobacco products: Perceived causes and potential solutions
title_sort store robberies for tobacco products perceived causes and potential solutions
topic Tax
convenience stores
crime prevention
policing
url https://www.journalcswb.ca/index.php/cswb/article/view/210
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AT kyroselket storerobberiesfortobaccoproductsperceivedcausesandpotentialsolutions