July 26, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — A story in London's Daily Mail on a phenomenon called "flashrobs" includes comments from Scott H. Decker, Foundation Professor and director of the school of criminology and criminal justice at Arizona State University.
The story reports, "A group of men and women robbed a
Victoria's Secret lingerie store after organising a 'flashmob' style
robbery using Facebook and Twitter, police have revealed. The
group entered the high-end lingerie store in Georgetown, Washington, on
Monday afternoon and made off with products 'within seconds' after
co-ordinating the raid online ... Police believe the 'flashrobs' are
planned on Facebook and Twitter, with raiders entering stores filled
with stunned customers before brazenly stealing goods directly in front
of store security cameras."
Dr. Decker, a 1972 graduate of DePauw University, tells the newspaper, "Young people are risk takers and seeing themselves on security videos uploaded on YouTube or the news can be a thrill to them."
Access the complete text at the Daily Mail's website.
Scott Decker is the author of Drug Smugglers on Drug Smuggling: Lessons from the Inside and Life in the Gang: Family, Friends and Violence and was co-editor of the International Handbook of Juvenile Justice. Learn more about him in this previous story.