Chapter 14 Property

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Chapter 14 Property Order Crime
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Chapter Summary

• Chapter 14 is an overview of property crimes and
  public order crimes.
• The Chapter begins with an overview of property
  crimes, including larceny/theft, burglary, MV
  theft, and arson.
• The second half of the chapter is an overview of
  public order crimes.
• This section of the Chapter includes a discussion
  of embezzlement, fraud, forgery, cybercrime,
  identity theft, prostitution, DUI, and gambling.

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Chapter Summary

• After reading this chapter, students should be
  able to
• Define and understand larceny/theft
• Explain burglary, and understand the typical
  burglar
• Describe the difference between MV theft and
  larceny/theft
• Understand arson
• List and explain public order crimes
• Discuss prostitution as a crime

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Introduction
Chapter Summary

• Understand the impact of the computer on crime
• Discuss DUI and gambling
• Property crime involves the illegal acquisition
  of money and goods or the destruction of property
  for financial gain or other malicious purposes.
• Public order crimes are crimes against prevailing
  social morality or which contribute to the
  breakdown of the public order.

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Figure 14.1 Thirty-Year Trends in U. S.
Property Crime
Source NCVS 2004 Victimization Survey
(Catalano, 2005) Note Data collected before the
NCVS redesign was implemented during 1992 (the
lightly shaded area) have been made comparable to
the post design NCVS. Data were re-estimated to
account for the effects of the redesign. Arson
not included
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Larceny-Theft

• Larceny/theft is the most common property crime
  committed in the United States and is defined as
  the unlawful taking, leading, or riding away from
  the possession or constructive possession of
  another.
• Larceny/theft covers most types of theft that do
  not include the use of threats, violence, or
  force.
• Larceny/theft includes grand theft and petty
  theft, with the distinction depending on the
  value of the asset stolen.

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Types of Larceny-Theft

• Larceny/theft are sub-classified by the FBI into
  shoplifting, pocket-picking, purse snatching,
  thefts from motor vehicles, theft of motor parts
  and accessories, theft of bicycles, and theft
  from buildings.
• Shoplifting Theft by a person other than an
  employee of goods exposed for sale in a store
  the most studied of the sub-categories of
  larceny/theft.
• Kleptomania Repetitive impulsive stealing for
  the thrill of stealing and getting away with it.

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Burglary

• The FBI defines burglary as the unlawful entry of
  a structure to commit a felony or theft.
• The unlawful entry element enables some states to
  define shoplifting as a burglary if it can be
  shown that a suspect entered a store with the
  intention of stealing, thereby making the entry
  unlawful.

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Burglars and their Motives

• The typical burglar is a young male firmly
  embedded in the street culture.
• The basic motive for committing burglary is no
  different from any other property crime to gain
  resources at little or no cost to oneself.

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Burglars and their Motives

• Burglars have been found to come from poor
  run-down socially disorganized neighborhoods
  where unemployment was rife, they were poorly
  educated, unreliable, resistant to taking orders,
  and most came from single-parent households.
• Most burglars choose burglary over jobs as being
  far more profitable.

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Burglars and Gender

• In 2004, 14.3 of the arrestees for burglary were
  female.
• Female burglars share most of the demographic
  characteristics of their male partners.
• Female burglars capitalize on their sexuality to
  locate potential targets.

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Choosing Burglary Targets

• The four most important considerations in target
  selection according to Mawby (2001) are target
  exposure, guardianship, target attractiveness,
  and proximity.
• The great majority of low- and mid-level burglars
  prey on residents in the same neighborhoods in
  which they reside.
• Guardianship is the most important consideration
  for low- and mid-level burglars.

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Disposing of the Loot

• The most immediate pressure facing burglars after
  a successful burglary is to convert the stolen
  goods into cash.
• Fence A person who regularly buys stolen
  property for resale and who often has a
  legitimate business to cover his activities.
• Burglars without connections to a professional
  fence must turn to other outlets
• Pawnshops
• Drug dealers
• Relatives, friends, and acquaintances

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Motor Vehicle Theft

• The FBI defines motor vehicle (MV) theft as the
  theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle.
• MV is a larceny, but it is considered different
  enough and serious enough to warrant separate
  classification.

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Motor Vehicle Theft for Fun and Profit

• Most MV thefts committed by juveniles are
  strictly for funjoyriding.
• Most vehicles stolen for profit are taken to
  so-called chop shops where they are stripped of
  their parts and accessories.
• Other stolen vehicles may be shipped abroad where
  they are worth more than they are in the United
  States.

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Table 14.1 Cities With the Highest Auto Theft
Rates and the Models Most Often Stolen
Cities With Highest MV Theft Rates in 2004
MVs Most Stolen in 2004
SOURCE National Insurance Crime Bureau, 2005.
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Figure 14.2 Alcohol-related Fatality Rate per
100 Million Vehicle Miles Traveled

Source National Highway Traffic Safety
Commission, U.S. Department of Transportation.
Traffic Safety Facts.
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Arson

• Arson is defined as any willful or malicious
  burning or attempting to burn, with or without
  intent to defraud, a dwelling house, public
  building, motor vehicle or aircraft, personal
  property of another, etc.
• Arson may have a variety of instrumental
  motivations such as financial gain, revenge, and
  intimidation, or expressive motivations that may
  signal psychopathology of some sort.

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Crimes of Guilt and Deceit

• The UCR lists three part II property
  crimesembezzlement, fraud, and
  forgery/counterfeitingthat are committed by a
  demographically broader range of people than we
  see committing such crimes as burglary and MV
  theft.

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Embezzlement

• Embezzlement the misappropriation or
  misapplication of money or property entrusted to
  the embezzlers care, custody, or control.
• Banks have long been embezzlement targets, but
  the advent of computers has made it both easier
  to commit and more lucrative.
• Embezzlement is the rarest of property crimes.

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Fraud

• Fraud Theft by trick i.e., obtaining the money
  or property of another through deceptive
  practices such as false advertising,
  impersonation, and other misrepresentations.

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Forgery

• Forge The creation or alteration of documents to
  give them the appearance and validity with the
  intention of gaining some fraudulent benefit from
  doing so.
• Counterfeiting The creation or altering of
  currency.

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Cybercrime

• Cybercrime The use of computer technology to
  criminally victimize unwary individuals or groups
• Everyone who enters cyberspace, uses a credit
  card and/or has a social security number, is a
  potential victim of cybercrime

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Identity Theft

• Identity theft Occurs when someone uses your
  personal information without your permission to
  commit fraud or some other crime.
• Criminals gain access to the personal information
  of others by stealing it, buying it, or simply by
  having it given to them by their unwary victims.

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Identity Theft

• Another method is phishing, which involves
  thieves casting thousands of fraudulent e-mails
  into the cyberpond asking for personal
  information and waiting for someone to bite.
• Most stolen identity information is not for the
  personal use of the thief but for sale to others.

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Denial of Service Attack Virtual Kidnapping and
Extortion

• Denial of service attacks occur when criminals
  kidnap a business website or threatens to
  kidnap it so that business cannot be conducted.

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Who are the Hackers?

• A hacker may be simply defined as someone who
  illicitly accesses someone elses computer system.

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Software Piracy

• Software privacy Illegally copying and
  distributing software for free or for sale.
• Software privacy is a crime, but few people see
  it as such unless multiple copies are made and
  sold for profit.

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Internet Child Pornography and Cyber Seduction

• The possession or viewing of child pornography is
  illegal because of the exploitation of the
  children depicted in it.
• The Internet being used to procure underage sex
  partners is a crime.

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Public Order Offenses

• It cannot be denied that all public order
  offenses cause some social harm, but whether or
  not for some of these offenses the harm is great
  enough to warrant siphoning off criminal justice
  resources that could be applied to more serious
  crimes is a matter of debate.

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Prostitution and Commercialized Vice

• Prostitution and commercialized vice is defined
  by the FBI as the unlawful promotion of or
  participation in sexual activities for profit to
  solicit customers or transport persons for
  prostitution purposes to won, manage, or operate
  a dwelling or other establishment for the purpose
  of providing a place where prostitution is
  performed or to otherwise assist or promote
  prostitution.

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Prostitution and Commercialized Vice

• Prostitution The provision of sexual services in
  exchange for money or other tangible reward, and
  a prostitute as a person who engages in such
  activity with multiple partners as a primary
  source of income.
• The hierarchy of prostitution
• Elite escort services and call houses are the
  most prestigious
• Brothels are mid-level
• Streetwalkers are the lowest member of the sex
  worker industry.

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Becoming a Prostitute

• It has been estimated that prostitution is the
  primary source of income for over one million
  women in the United States.
• Although most of the run-of-the-mill prostitutes
  just drifted aimlessly into it under subtle
  pressure, and few of them deliberately set out to
  become prostitutes, high-class call girls usually
  consciously make a decision to enter the
  profession.

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Should Prostitution be Legalized?

• Ancient Athens viewed prostitution as functional,
  however, that attitude ignores the important role
  of the morality of society, and the issue of
  legalization becomes how much morality are we
  willing to sacrifice for the sake of expediency.

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Other Sex Offenses

• Sex offenses includes all sex offenses other than
  forcible rape and prostitution, and is defined as
  offenses against chastity, common decency,
  morals, and the like.
• Exhibition The exposure of ones genitals to a
  stranger of either gender for sexual pleasure.

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Other Sex Offenses

• Voyeurism The act of secretly observing
  unsuspecting persons who are naked, in the
  process of disrobing, or engaging in sexual
  activity
• Toucheurism Involves the desire to intimately
  touch women.
• Frotteurism Involves the desire to press the
  penis against a women.

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Driving under the Influence

• Driving under the influence is defined by the FBI
  as driving or operating a motor vehicle or common
  carrier while mentally or physically impaired as
  the result of consuming an alcoholic beverage or
  using a drug or narcotic.

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Driving under the Influence

• MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is an
  organization that has effectively lobbied for
  legislation nationwide to increase the legal
  drinking age and for stricter penalties for drunk
  drivers.

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Driving under the Influence

• The FBI defines gambling as to unlawfully bet or
  wager money or something else of value assist,
  promote, or operate a game of chance for money or
  some other stake possess or transmit wagering
  information manufacture, sell, purchase,
  possess, or transport gambling equipment,
  devices, or goods or tamper with the outcome of
  a sporting event or contest to gain a gambling
  advantage.
• The biggest problem with gambling is the person
  who becomes addicted and gambles away everything
  he or she owns.