Chapter 11

Property Crimes
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
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
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
Modern Thieves

• Sutherland’s 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)
Modern Thieves

• The Professional Fence

 Earns a living buying and reselling stolen merchandise
 May operate through legitimate business fronts
 Fences use complex pricing policy
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
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)
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)
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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”
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
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
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
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
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
Burglary

• The Burglary Career Ladder

 Paul Cromwell, James Olson, and D’Aunn Wester suggest
burglars go through stages of development:
• Novices (learning the trade)
• Journeyman (lucrative targets and careful planning)
• Professional (advanced skills)
Burglary

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

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