Giuliani Daughter Shoplifting Arrest: Is Alleged Theft a Cry for Help?

Caroline Giuliani, center (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

(CBS/AP) Caroline Giuliani, the 20-year-old daughter of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, was arrested after allegedly stealing $100 worth of cosmetics from a Sephora store in Manhattan.

The Harvard senior was captured on camera stuffing her pockets at the pricey cosmetic shop.

Caroline Giuliani is the younger of the former New York mayor's two children with ex-wife Donna Hanover, a television reporter and actress.

She is believed to be estranged from her prosecutor-turned-politican father.

Why would such a wealthy and privileged young woman feel the need to shoplift? It's a question as old as Winona Ryder.

"When your parents are high profile," she says, "and when your family doesn't have much of a private life, you might feel cheated," says April Benson, PhD, a  New York City psychologist. "Sometimes they feel that they've been cheated out of life and that they are owed."

Benson says that in families - and she is quick to say that she does not whether this is true for the Giulianis - where the unspoken rule is to pretend that everything is okay when it isn't, children find other ways to "cry out for help."

Like stealing?

[babooph]

Great example of US propaganda,when the rich steal they are"reaching out"& need help- when caught they have been "punished enough"-when they are nuts they are" eccentric"&need to be understood,not locked up-when living off fat trust funds they did not earn ,they are not" parasites "on the workers whose labor keeps them in yachts ,hotels & fine dining...

[Hypnogal]

One third of all new businesses fail because of shoplifting. Each US family pays $300 per year to subsidize the cost of adult and teen shoplifting.

[rytzy_rytz]

here.. as rushed & presumed to help is what they call "therapy". In other parts of the world..you're whacked..learns fast. Done. Never again. No excuses. Reason? to fix ones head & action. Rough? yup! Inhuman? certainly..but it works..in the other side of the world per se..

[ahbveeus]

On second glance, the arrest of the Harvard student just as the Harvard Law School Dean was getting nominated to the Supreme Court is quite a co-inky-dink. Who did this?

[ahbveeus]

Why have a daughter is you don't talk to her?

He apparently never sat down and talked to her about his work, crime and the ever-present video cameras in most stores.

What was she thinking?

So this is a Harvard student? Fascinating.

[Sirduke731]

Funny how it's a "cry for help" when it involves a wealthy, highly educated person but a "sign of a more serious character flaw" when it involves an unwealthy or poor minority. Interesting how the media/society can see the same thing two ways.

[pondrthis]

Honestly, while there's obviously spin as you said, you can't claim that theft by a wealthy person and theft by a poor person are the "same thing". They're entirely different. One is an act motivated by jealousy or greed (or need once in every million cases) and the other is an act motivated by a simply disturbed mind or need for attention. Upsetting media twist? Yes. The same thing? No.

[retiredgustav]

Amen You must have read my mind.

[Edfleck]

How embarassing it must be to this poor girl...not the shoplifting charge but having Rudy giuliani as your father. How many firemen died because of his misfeasance and then he lied about it but still couldn't get one delegate when he ran for president. His best friend Kerik's in jail and this is the first time they are separated. Maybe someday they'll be reunited in jail.

[ITSOVERNOW]

Yeah he ruined everything for us welfare cheats & crackheads . You cant even kill a Korean grocer nowadays. I hope he rots in hell.

[fdx22]

I hope the DA presses charges against her. She should not get off easy.

[val5000]

Just so y'all know: Kleptomania, which drives shoplifting, has a simple cure...getting caught! This young lady is already cured of her shoplifting, guaranteed. The punishment she's already received far outweighs the damage she did to Sephora Inc.

[julieisthebest]

Who cares? Why should anyone who shoplifts get the benefit of the doubt that it is a "cry for help"? People certainly wouldn't be making excuses like this for a poor college student.

[thebob-bob]

We all know how tough Rudy Giuliani is on crime, right? Time to clean up the street RG!