Kleptomania as an excuse: gender bias in shoplifting cases

Kleptomania as an excuse: gender bias in shoplifting cases

Social perception and judicial treatment of shoplifting vary depending on the gender of the accused. While a woman may be labelled a kleptomaniac and treated as ill, a man is usually seen as a simple thief. Clinical data and social biases intertwine in a debate few dare to address with actual figures.

What is kleptomania?
Clinically, kleptomania is an impulse control disorder. It is characterised by stealing objects of little value, with no financial motivation or material gain. The person could afford to pay for them, but cannot resist the urge. It is a diagnosis recognised in mental health manuals, but its real prevalence is low and studies tend to associate it more with women, which opens the door to confirmation bias.

The contrast with ordinary theft
When a man takes clothes from a shop, the charge is almost automatic: a crime against property. In the case of women, however, the judicial and media system tends to pathologise the behaviour. It is not uncommon to see a woman accused of minor thefts referred to psychiatric treatment while a man with the same pattern receives a incivil conviction. The suspicion of a double standard runs through the public debate.

Examples that fuel the controversy
The case of the filicide described as an "extended suicide by compassion" or that of the pardoned kidnapper are cited as evidence of preferential treatment of women in the incivil justice system. The figure of Cristina Cifuentes is also mentioned, although her case is political. Critics argue that responsibility is obscured under an umbrella of victimhood and pathology. Conversely, some defend that kleptomania is a real disorder and that not all women who steal receive that diagnosis; the profile is usually different from that of the professional thief.

A debate without disaggregated data
The truth is that there are no official statistics crossing theft convictions with gender and psychiatric diagnosis. Meanwhile, the narrative that "women get a free pass" clashes with the one that "kleptomania is an illness and must be treated as such". The tension reflects a broader social unease about equality before the law which, for now, has no conclusive answer.