Theft, shoplifting, and burglary are criminal offenses involving the unlawful taking of someone else’s property. The elements of theft and shoplifting are compared, and statistics will be provided highlighting the number of thefts within Glendale’s city boundaries over the past three months. Examples of burglary offenses alongside elements, classification, and statistics on burglary offenses in Glendale will be discussed. Theft and Shoplifting The crimes of theft and shoplifting share similarities as both involve unlawfully taking someone else’s property. However, these crimes differ in context and on specific elements. Theft occurs when “a person without authority, knowingly controls or exercises control over someone’s property, or deprives …show more content…
For example, in the state of Arizona, theft of any property or services valued at less than $1000.00 is considered a misdemeanor unless the property is a firearm or an animal taken for animal fighting (Arizona State Legislature, n.d.). One example of theft is a neighbor stealing Amazon packages left on the doorstep. Shoplifting involves “taking items past the point of sale with the intent to deprive the shop of payment” (AJS 109 – Lesson 5). With shoplifting, a suspect intentionally obtains merchandise and removes merchandise from immediate display without paying the purchase price, charges the price to a fictitious person, pays less than the purchase price by altering the price tag, transferring the merchandise from one container to another, or concealing unpurchased merchandise. In most states, shoplifting is classified as larceny, yet in other states, it is an infraction (Legal Information Institute, n.d.). One example of shoplifting is intentionally walking away with bags of unpaid groceries from Target. In Glendale, there have been 318 reported incidents of theft from January 19, 2024 to April 19, 2024/ There have been 172 incidents of shoplifting in the same period (CommunityCrimeMap,
Crime and the Community. New York: Sage. TYLER, T., R., 1990. Why People Obey the Law. New Haven: Yale University Press.
This paper will provide an explanation into how differential association theory explains burglary. Burglary, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (F.B.I), considers a property crime a Type 1 Index Crime because of its potentially violent nature. The F.B.I. breaks burglary down into three sub classifications. This paper discusses the elements of the crime of burglary and what constitutes a structure or dwelling. It will discuss a brief history of the deviance, trends and rates, and how it correlates to the specific theory that this paper will also discuss.
Rosenfeld, R., & Fornado, R. (2007). The impact of economic conditions on robbery and property crime: The role of consumer sentiment. Criminology, 45, 735-769.
There are numerous theories as to why a crime is committed. Rational choice theory, which is a subset of classical theory, says that before people commit a crime they think about what they are going to do. They weigh the pros and cons before committing the criminal act. The rational choice theory is well suited for the causation of burglary. The support for this theory is that burglars do not commit crime for the fun of it or just because they want to. It is usually because they need money to keep their heads above water. In their situation, they do not see any other way than to steal to make a living. The opposition for rational choice theory is that criminals do not think before they act as they may be incapable of thinking rationally in the first place.
Understanding Crime: Theory and Practice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishers. Woodham, J., & Toye, K. (2007). Empirical Tests of Assumption of Case Linkages & Offender’s profiling with Commercial Robbery.
One of the biggest issues in America today is crime. It is a large problem that continues to erode our country economically as well as morally. Because of the vastness of the problem, many have speculated what the cause for crime may be in hopes that a solution will be found. Many believe that a bad family life, location of residence, and poverty hold a few of the answers to why an individual becomes involved in criminal activity.
The Uniform Crime Report, which was developed in the 1930s, is commonly used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a record of crimes committed all across the United States. These crimes, which fall under two categories, Part I and Part II offenses, are reported by local police to the Federal Bureau of Investigation each year. Part I offenses are considered to be the more serious of crimes recognized by society. Such examples of this are homicide, forcible rape, robbery, arson, motor vehicle theft, etc. Part II offenses are those that are considered less serious, such as fraud, simple assault, drug abuse, gambling, stolen property, embezzlement, etc. Part I crimes can also be subdivided into what are known as violent crimes and property crimes. (Barkan, 2012). However, there are both some positive and negative aspects of this type of crime measurement. The following paper will explore the small amount of pros and numerous cons associated with the Uniform Crime Report.
“There is a widespread concern that the level and type of crime reported in the media present a distorted view of the real level of crime in the community” (Media portrayals of crime, 2000). If a crime is portrayed as ‘out of control’ or perceived as ‘dangerous’ to a community through the media, it could create social repercussions, such as isolation of consumers who believe that their community is in a high-crime or high-violence area. Statistics recorded from the Australian Institute of Criminology confirms property crime, such as break and enter, burglary, vehicle theft and shoplifting are continually being reported at a higher rate than violent crime (Media portrayals of crime, 2000). In 2013 alone, there were approximately 739,317 property offences in total (homicide incidents, 2017). Therefore, the increase in property offences in society was the highest recorded in 2013, compared to violent crimes that are decreasing in a total of 151,714 in the same reviewed period. In addition, this evidence shows that the majority of crime in our society is not of a violent nature.
Shoplifting is a very big problem in America. Shoplifting affects more than the offender. It overburdens the police and the courts, adds to a store's security expenses, costs consumers more for goods, costs communities lost dollars in sales taxes and hurts children and families. Not all shoplifters are the same, there are two distinct types. There are also many ways to help prevent shoplifting.
Property Crime can be defined as the unauthorized taking or damaging of an individual’s personal belongings. This is not limited to robbery of any kind, fraud, or even arson, but all of these crimes have several coinciding traits that group them under this term. While property crimes are meant to take something that is not ours and use it for our own advantage, violent crimes are used to harm or even kill another rather than using for ones self. This includes hate crimes, murder, rape, and abuse. Hate Crimes are unique because they usually target someone who’s different than the race or sex of that individual committing the offense whereas murder and assault are not always gender or race defined. Therefore, property and violent crimes are influenced by social inequalities that are caused by gender, race, income and age; thus why the legal definition of crime cannot cover all possible scenarios without taking each individual case and studying social behaviors in these of why or what was the cause of the crime committed.
Shoplifting is a major problem in today. The temptation of not paying for something, just hiding it away and saving your own money is a large factor for some people. The culprit just thinks he's getting a product for free and doesn't know what he's actually doing to himself and the community. Shoplifting effects everyone, yourself and the everyone in the local neighborhood.In this essay I'm going to explain some of the circumstances of stealing from local stores, or any store. After I've been caught stealing I found out how wrong it is and how it is a disadvantage to everyone.
From 1991-2000, statistically there was a dramatic decline in crime nationally. The statistics studied were of all categories of crimes considered serious, including: homicides which decreased by 39%; rape which decreased by 41%; robbery which decreased by 44%; aggravated assault which decreased by 24%; burglary which decreased by 41%; auto theft which decreased by 37%; and larceny which decreased by 23%. The statistics show a range of decline of 23-44%! (United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation 1990, 2000. Uniform Crime Report. Washington, D.C.) The evidence indicates that the benefit of declining crime rates are concentrated on specific groups with...
Helping out a family member, or even helping out a person who isn’t family. (Steal These Shoplifting Facts) included that 10 million people have been caught shoplifting in the last five years. But do we know the reason why they’ve
For a professional thief to be successful there are many personal traits, skills, and resources they must possess. In this paper, I will be using Darrell J. Steffensmeier’s The Fence: In the Shadow of Two Worlds which follows the life of Sam, a professional thief and fence, as a lens to analyze the skills, traits, and factors that surround being successful as a thief. I will then use this analysis to determine wether or not I personally could follow in Sam’s footsteps and be successful as a professional thief in the criminal underworld.
The U.S. Department of Labor (2011) reported the national average of unemployment for 2008 was 5.8 percent. The rate dramatically increased in 2009 with an average of 9.3 percent and 9.6 percent for 2010. While unemployment rates have increased, the FBI’s preliminary reports for 2010 show that law enforcement agencies across the U.S. have reported a decrease of 6.2 percent in the number of violent crimes for the first 6 months of 2010 when compared to figures reported for the same time in 2009. The violent crime category includes rape, murder, robbery, and aggravated result. The number of property crimes also decreased 2.8 percent when compared to the same time last year. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. Arson decreased 14.6 percent when compared to the same time periods of 2009 (FBI, 2011).