Property Crimes

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Chapter 11
Property Crimes
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A Brief History of Theft

• Economic crimes acts in violation of the
  criminal law designed to bring financial reward
• Skilled thieves typically worked in larger
  cities and congregated in flashouses
• Smugglers moved freely in the sparsely populated
  areas and dealt in spirits, gems, gold, and
  spices
• Poachers lived in the country taking game that
  belonged to a landlord

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Modern Thieves

• Occasional Criminals
• Most crime committed by amateurs whose acts are
  unskilled, and unplanned
• Occasional crime occurs when there is a
  situational inducement
• Frequency of occasional crime varies according to
  age, class, race, and gender
• Occasional criminals have little group support
  for the crimes

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Modern Thieves

• Professional Criminals
• Make a significant portion of their income from
  crime.
• Professionals do not rationalize their
  criminality
• Pursue their craft to make the most money with
  the least amount of risk

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Modern Thieves

• Sutherlands Professional Criminal
• Professional thieves engage in limited types of
  crime
• Exclusive use of wits, front (demeanor), and
  talking ability
• Must acquire status in the profession
• Pickpocket (cannon)
• Thief in rackets related to confidence games
• Forger
• Extortionist from those engaging in illegal acts
• Confidence game artists
• Thief who steals from hotel rooms
• Jewel thief who substitutes fake gems for real
  (pennyweighter)
• Shoplifter (booster)
• Sneak thief from stores, banks, and offices (heel)

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Modern Thieves

• The Professional Fence
• Earns a living buying and reselling stolen
  merchandise
• May operate through legitimate business fronts
• Fences use complex pricing policy

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Modern Thieves

• The Nonprofessional Fence
• Often legitimate business people who integrate
  stolen merchandise part-time
• Associational fences barter stolen goods for
  services
• Neighborhood hustlers buy and sell part-time and
  keep some merchandise for themselves
• Amateur receivers strangers approached in a
  public place with a great deal on valuable
  commodities

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Larceny/Theft

• The trespassory taking and carrying away of the
  personal property of another with intent to steal
• Constructive possession refers the legal fiction
  that applies in situations in which persons
  voluntarily and temporarily give up custody of
  their property (i.e. watch repair)

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Larceny/Theft

• Larceny Today
• Petty larceny involves small amounts of money or
  property
• Grand larceny involves greater values of property
  punishable by imprisonment
• Larceny/theft is the most common of all crimes (7
  million acts in 2003)

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Larceny/Theft

• Shoplifting taking of goods from a retail store
• Boosters professional shoplifters (Mary Owen
  Cameron)
• Snitches amateur shoplifters who steal for
  themselves
• Criminologists view shoplifters as likely to
  reform

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Larceny/Theft

• Controlling Shoplifting
• Fewer than 10 percent are detected by store
  employees
• Merchant privilege laws protect retailers from
  lawsuits
• Target removal strategies involve dummy or
  disabled goods for display
• Target hardening strategies involve locking
  racks or displays such as EAS systems
  (situational deterrents)

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Larceny/Theft

• Bad Checks
• Knowingly and intentionally drawn on nonexistent
  or under-funded bank account
• Edwin Lemert classified check forgers as
• Naïve check forgers are amateurs who have a
  pressing need for money
• Systematic forgers make a substantial living
  passing bad checks
• Often it is difficult to separate the true check
  forger from the neglectful shopper

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Larceny/Theft

• Credit Card Theft
• Approximately 1.8 billion per year lost to
  stolen or fake credit cards
• To combat losses Congress passed a law in1971
  limiting losses to 50
• Use of bogus Internet sites to obtain credit card
  numbers
• Digital signatures and digital keys are an
  attempt to reduce credit card theft

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Larceny/Theft

• Auto Theft
• Approximately 1.2 million in 2003
• Types of Auto Theft
• Joyriding motivated by a desire for power or
  prestige
• Short-term transportation similar to joyriding
• Long-term transportation Intend to keep vehicles
  for personal use
• Profit motivated by the hope for profit
• Commission of another crime vehicle taken for
  use in the commission of a crime for anonymity
• Luxury cars and SUVs most in demand
• Vehicles are frequently shipped abroad where
  they command higher prices

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Larceny/Theft

• Carjacking legally considered a form of robbery
• Victims and offenders tend to be Black
• Urban residents most likely to experience
  carjacking
• Committed in groups and often in the evening
• Combating Auto Theft
• Situational crime prevention efforts (HEAT)
• Lojack systems utilize a tracking device
• Public campaigns to lock vehicles
• Closed-circuit TV cameras

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Larceny/Theft

• False Pretenses or Fraud
• Misrepresenting a fact to gain property
• Victims willingly give up their money or property
• Does not require a trespass

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Larceny/Theft

• Confidence Games
• Getting a person interested in get-rich-quick
  schemes (Mark)
• Most common forms are pigeon drops
• Con artist may pose as bank employees
• Pyramid schemes involve the selling of phony
  franchises
• Shady contractor repairs

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Larceny/Theft

• Embezzlement
• Occurs when someone who is trusted with property
  fraudulently converts it for his or her own use
• Number of people arrested for embezzlement has
  increased over the last two decades
• More employees are willing to steal from
  employers
• More employers are willing to report embezzlement
• Law enforcement officials are more willing to
  prosecute

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Burglary

• Legal definition has undergone considerable
  change
• Common law required breaking and entering and
  at night
• Recent laws have discarded forced entry and
  eliminated nighttime requirement

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Burglary

• The Nature and Extent of Burglary
• NCVS reports about 3.3 million residential
  burglaries in 2003
• Residential Burglary Experienced burglars tend
  to avoid rental properties and willing to travel
  to find rich targets
• Commercial Burglary Business are quick sources
  of merchandise that can be easily sold

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Burglary

• Careers in Burglary
• Good burglars must learn many skills to be
  lucrative
• Must be able to team-up with trustworthy
  companions
• Must have inside information
• Must cultivate fences and buyers
• Neal Shover suggests a person becomes a good
  burglar by learning techniques of the trade from
  experienced burglars

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Burglary

• The Burglary Career Ladder
• Paul Cromwell, James Olson, and DAunn Wester
  suggest burglars go through stages of
  development
• Novices (learning the trade)
• Journeyman (lucrative targets and careful
  planning)
• Professional (advanced skills)

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Burglary

• Repeat Burglary
• Research suggests many burglars return to strike
  the same victim
• Less effort to burgle a suitable target
• Aware of targets layout
• Entry/escape target has not changed
• Lack of protective measures (alarms, etc.)
• Goods were observed in first strike

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Arson

• The willful, malicious burning of a home, public
  building, vehicle, or commercial building (71,000
  in 2003)
• To obtain money during a period of financial
  crisis
• To get rid of outdated or slow-moving inventory
• To destroy outmoded machines and technology
• To pay off legal an illegal debts
• To relocate or remodel a business
• To take advantage of government funds
• To plan bankruptcies
• To eliminate business competition
• To employ extortion schemes
• To conceal another crime

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Arson

• Weblink
• http//www.atf.treas.gov/