Schmall crim today8e_ppt_ch12

Criminology Today
An Integrated Introduction
CHAPTER
Criminology Today: An Integrated Introduction, 8e
Frank Schmalleger
Copyright © 2017 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Crimes Against
Property
12

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Frank Schmalleger
Burglary
• UCR definition
 The unlawful entry of a structure to
commit a felony or theft
• Residential burglaries do not involve
direct confrontation but can cause fear
with lasting effects.
• Commercial burglaries can affect the
continued viability of the business.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Social Ecology of Burglary
• Lifestyle and routine activities theories
emphasize how criminal opportunity is
affected by victims' and offenders'
everyday activities/environments.
• The structure of social life affects how
easy it to carry out one’s inclination to
offend.

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Frank Schmalleger
A Typology of Burglars
• Low-level burglars (mainly juveniles)
 Work with others, easily deterred,
limited rewards, often desist with age
• Middle-range burglars
 Older, vacillate between crime and
legitimate activities, less easily deterred
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
A Typology of Burglars
• High-level burglars
 Professionals, work in organized crews,
earn a good living from burglary

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Frank Schmalleger
The Locales and Times of Burglary
• Nighttime residential and daytime
commercial burglary are considered the
most serious.
• Burglary is a "cold crime" because
there usually is little physical evidence
to link the offender to the crime.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Motivation of Burglars
• Most prevalent rationale for residential
burglary is need for fast cash.
• Why offenders choose burglary
 Burglary is familiar, the "main line."
 It is less risky than other offenses.
 The offender may not own the
necessary equipment for robbery.

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Frank Schmalleger
Target Selection for Burglary
• Commercial burglaries
 Suitability
 Retail establishments preferred over
other types (e.g., wholesale or service
businesses)

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Frank Schmalleger
Target Selection for Burglary
• Residential burglaries
 Key factors include knowledge of
occupants, tips, observation of potential
target.
 Other factors include signs of
occupancy, security devices, dogs,
access to area.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Costs of Burglary
• Most household burglaries involve
economic loss.
 Stolen property/money
 Time lost from work
• Property crimes like burglary have a
greater effect on the decision to move
than violent crimes.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Burglary-Drug Connection
• Increased demand for crack cocaine in
the 1980s affected crime rates.
 Burglary decreased, robbery increased
• Crack trade created preference for
cash-intensive crimes (robbery) over
burglary.
• Crime shift consistent with view that
property offenders tend to be
generalists.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Sexualized Context of
Burglary
• Some burglaries have associated sexual
dynamics (fetishists, voyeurists).
• Some sexually motivated homicides
begin as burglaries.
• Can be explained from the perspective
of opportunity theory
• Home-intrusion rape

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Frank Schmalleger
Larceny-Theft
• The unlawful taking, carrying, leading,
or riding away of property from the
possession, or constructive possession,
of another
• Most frequently occurring property
crime
• Does not involve force or other means
of illegal entry
• A crime of opportunity

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Frank Schmalleger
Shoplifting and Employee Theft
• Retail theft includes shoplifting and
theft by store employees.
 Most are short-term workers.
 Internal theft more serious than loss
due to shoplifting
• Technology is one of the best ways to
address both types of theft.
• Shoplifting crosses class lines, not
committed primarily by women.

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Frank Schmalleger
Who Shoplifts?
• Juveniles overrepresented as
shoplifters
 More serious, chronic forms found
among economically disadvantaged
• Majority of juveniles admit to
shoplifting at some point in their
lifetime.
• Maturing out pattern

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Frank Schmalleger
Flash Mobs and Larceny
• Flash mobs
 Purposeful crowds brought together at a
moment's notice through use of social
media web sites
• Some involve organized criminal
activity
• Larcenies committed by flash mobs are
considered multiple-offender crimes.

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Frank Schmalleger
Identity Theft
• Unauthorized use of another's personal
information to commit fraud
• Main categories
 Existing account fraud
• Thieves obtain information on open
accounts.
 New account fraud
• Thieves use personal information to open
new accounts in the victim's name.

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Frank Schmalleger
Identity Theft
• Costs of identity theft
 Direct losses to victims
 Indirect costs to businesses for fraud
prevention and harm mitigation
 Indirect costs to victims
• Civil litigation, obstacles in obtaining or
retaining credit
 Consumers' fears of victimization can
harm the digital economy.

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Frank Schmalleger
Identity Theft
• 1998 Identity Theft and Assumption
Deterrence Act
 Made identity theft a federal crime
• 2004 Identity Theft Penalty
Enhancement Act
 Increased federal prison sentences for
various types of identity theft

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Frank Schmalleger
The Incidence of Identity Theft
• BJS definition of identity theft includes:
 Unauthorized use/attempted use of
existing credit cards
 Unauthorized use/attempted use of
other existing accounts
 Misuse of personal information to obtain
new accounts or loans, or to commit
other crimes

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Frank Schmalleger
Identity Thieves: Who They Are
• Hard to classify identity thieves
• Often have no prior criminal
background, sometimes have
preexisting relationship with victim
• Increased involvement of foreign
organized criminal groups in computer-
or Internet-related schemes

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Frank Schmalleger
Motor Vehicle Theft
• UCR definition
 The theft or attempted theft of a motor
vehicle
• Automobiles are the most commonly-
stolen type of vehicle.
• Car theft violates victim beyond
financial loss.

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Frank Schmalleger
Motor Vehicle Theft
• Largest percentage of vehicles stolen
from parking lot or garage
• Most motor vehicle thefts reported to
police
• Motivations include:
 Joyriding
 Temporary transportation needs
 Use in a crime
 Stripping

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Frank Schmalleger
Theft of Car Parts
• Motivations
 Car parts may be worth a lot.
 Can be sold easily
 Harder to identify than entire cars
• 1984 Motor Vehicle Theft Law
Enforcement Act called for marking of
cars' major sheet metal parts with VINs

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Frank Schmalleger
Joyriders: Car Theft for Fun
• Opportunistic car theft committed for
fun or thrills, usually by groups of teens
• Expressive act with little or no extrinsic
value
• Most vehicles stolen by joyriders are
recovered, usually found abandoned,
often after having been crashed.

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Frank Schmalleger
Professional Car Theft
• Less common as thefts for other uses
• Professional auto thieves work in
groups characterized by planning and
calculation in target selection.
• Professional thefts have lowest recover
rates.

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Frank Schmalleger
Arson
• UCR definition
 The willful or malicious burning or
attempt to burn, with or without intent
to defraud, of a dwelling house, public
building, motor vehicle or aircraft,
personal property of another, etc.
• Majority of arrestees white males
• Motives vary from profit to thrill
seeking.

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Frank Schmalleger
Fire Setters
• Majority of those involved in arson are
juveniles.
• Almost half of all cleared arsons involve
a juvenile offender.
• Juveniles overrepresented in both
residential and commercial arson

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Frank Schmalleger
Groups of Juvenile Fire Setters
• Children under 7
 Start fires accidentally or out of
curiosity
• Children between 8–12
 Fire setting represents underlying
psychosocial conflict
• Children between 13–18
 Have history of fire setting, usually
undetected

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Frank Schmalleger
Persistent and Professional
Thieves
• Professional criminal
 Offender who makes a living from
crime, is recognized by other offenders
as a professional, engages in planned
and calculated offending
• Persistent thief
 Offender who continues in common law
property crimes despite no better than
an ordinary level of success

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Frank Schmalleger
Persistent and Professional
Thieves
• Offense specialization
 Preference for a certain type of offense
 Limited among property offenders
• Cafeteria-style offending
 Heterogeneous and unplanned nature of
offending among gang members
• Occasional offender
 Offender whose offending patterns are
guided primarily by opportunity

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Frank Schmalleger
Property Offenders and Rational
Choice
• Rationality
 Activities identified by their impersonal,
methodological, efficient, and logical
components
• Burglars employ a "limited, temporal
rationality."

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Frank Schmalleger
Receivers of Stolen Property
• Basic elements
 Buying and receiving
 Stolen property
 Knowing it to be stolen
• Fence is least common method for
most thieves to dispose of stolen
goods.
• Most common method used by
professional burglars

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Frank Schmalleger
The Role of Criminal Receivers
• Professional receiver
 Regularly buys stolen goods for resale
 May be generalist or specialist
• Avocational receiver
 Part-time, fencing is secondary to but
associated with primary business.
• Amateur receiver
 Otherwise honest person who buys
stolen property on relatively small scale

Schmall crim today8e_ppt_ch12

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