Ls311/ Unit 3 Assignment-Property Crimes

Property Crimes

Property crimes are a form of criminal activity where “a person, called an offender, tries to obtain some form of economic gain or to damage property belonging to society” (Miller & Jentz, 2008, p. 128). Although there are many different types of property crime, in this paper I will address the following three types: robbery, burglary, and larceny, and what criteria is used to determine the charges for each.

The three property crimes listed above are all considered theft or stealing and there are different classifications depending on which one has occurred and how serious the incident was. Robbery, unlike burglary and larceny, is a form of property crime, as well as a violent crime because the offender is trying to take property away from someone using force or inflicting fear of personal injury (Miller & Jentz, 2008). Robbery requires the presence of the owner of the property to be present and be aware that the crime is occurring, where “burglary does not require the knowledge or presence of the owner” (Wechsler, 2011). Burglary is defined as the breaking and entering of a dwelling with the intent to commit a felony, but the actual intent does not have to be carried out (Burglary, 2013). Both robbery and burglary are considered a felony charge, except in a few circumstances where burglary can be a misdemeanor, “if the crime was committed in a commercial building with the value of the theft being less than 400 dollars” (Is Burglary a Felony, 2013, para. 5).

Larceny is “the unlawful taking and caring away of someone else’s personal property with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of possession, also known as stealing or theft” (Miller & Jentz, 2008, p. 128). Larceny and robbery are considered the same type of crime because they both involve theft. The difference between larceny and robbery is that robbery involves force or fear and the knowledge of the crime by the owner and larceny does not involve any type of fear or force and...