In the criminal law, theft (also known as stealing) is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent. The term criminal law, sometimes called penal law, refers to any of various bodies of rules in different Jurisdictions whose common characteristic is the potential Property is any physical or virtual entity that is owned by an individual Consent as a term of jurisprudence is a possible defence (an Excuse or justification against civil or criminal liability As a term, it is used as shorthand for all major crimes against property, encompassing offences such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, mugging, trespassing, shoplifting, intrusion, fraud (theft by deception) and sometimes criminal conversion. In the sociological field, crime is the breach of a rule or Law for which some governing authority or force may ultimately prescribe a Punishment Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets usually financial in nature by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted In the United States, larceny is a Common law Crime involving Theft. Looting ( Hindi lūṭ akin to Sanskrit luṭhati steals also Latin latro, latronis Robbery is the Crime of seizing Property through Violence or Intimidation. Trespass (Fr trespas a crime properly a stepping across from Lat Shoplifting (also known as retail theft, or shrinkage within the retail industry is Theft of goods from a Retail establishment by an ostensible In the broadest sense a fraud is a Deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual Criminal conversion, in Criminal law, is usually defined as the Crime of exerting unauthorized use or control of someone else's Property. In some jurisdictions, theft is considered to be synonymous with larceny; in others, theft has replaced larceny. This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym" In the United States, larceny is a Common law Crime involving Theft.
Someone who carries out an act of or makes a career of theft is known as a thief.
Contents |
Elements
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| Criminal law |
|---|
| Part of the common law series |
| Criminal elements |
| Actus reus · Causation · Concurrence |
| Mens rea · Intention · Recklessness |
| Criminal negligence · Ignorantia juris… |
| Strict, Corporate & Vicarious liability |
| Crimes against people |
| Assault · Battery · Robbery |
| Sexual offences · Pimping · Rape |
| Kidnapping · Manslaughter · Murder |
| Crimes against property |
| Property damage · Arson |
| Theft · Burglary · Deception |
| Crimes against justice |
| Obstruction of justice · Bribery |
| Perjury · Malfeasance in office |
| Inchoate offenses |
| Attempt |
| Conspiracy · Accessory |
| Criminal defenses |
| Automatism, Intoxication & Mistake |
| Insanity · Diminished responsibility |
| Duress · Necessity |
| Provocation · Self defence |
| Other areas of the common law |
| Contract law · Tort law · Property law |
| Wills and trusts · Evidence |
| Portals: Law · Criminal justice |
The actus reus of theft is usually defined as an unauthorised taking, keeping or using of another's property which must be accompanied by a mens rea of dishonesty and/or the intent to permanently deprive the owner or the person with rightful possession of that property or its use. Actus reus, sometimes called the external element or the objective element of a crime is the Latin term for the "guilty act" which when proved In Criminal law, mens rea the Latin term for "guilty mind" is usually one of the necessary elements of a Crime. Dishonesty is a word which in common usage may be defined as the act or to act without honesty a lack of probity to cheat lying or being deliberately deceptive lacking in In the Criminal law, intention is one of the three general classes of Mens rea necessary to constitute a conventional as opposed to
For example, if X goes to a restaurant and, by mistake, takes Y's scarf instead of her own, she has physically deprived Y of the use of the property (which is the actus reus) but the mistake prevents X from forming the mens rea (i. A mistake of fact may sometimes offer exculpation (as in Excuse) by allowing a criminal Defendant some relief from liability for having broken the e. because she believes that she is the owner, she is not dishonest and does not intend to deprive the "owner" of it) so no crime has been committed at this point. But if she realises the mistake when she gets home and could return the scarf to Y, she will steal the scarf if she dishonestly keeps it. Note that there may be civil liability for the torts of trespass to chattels or conversion in either eventuality. Tort law is the name given to a body of law that creates and provides remedies for civil wrongs that do not arise out of Contractual duties Trespass to chattels is a Tort whereby the infringing party has intentionally (or in Australia negligently interfered with another person's lawful possession of a Chattel In Law, conversion is an intentional Tort to Personal property (same as Chattel) where defendant's unjustified willful interference with the
By region
Theft in English law
In English law, theft was codified into a statutory offence in the Theft Act 1968 which defines it as:
- "A person is guilty of theft, if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it". English law is the legal system of England and Wales, and is the basis of Common law legal systems used in most Commonwealth countriesand the The Theft Act 1968 (1968 c60 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, governing most of the general property offences in English law. (Section 1)
The five elements of the offence are defined sequentially in the Act:
- Section 2 dishonesty;
- Section 3 "appropriation" which occurs when the defendant wrongfully asserts the rights of ownership over the property. Dishonesty is a word which in common usage may be defined as the act or to act without honesty a lack of probity to cheat lying or being deliberately deceptive lacking in This can be by physical taking, but it will also include many different situations (i. e. a failure to return or omission) in which a person may have lawfully come into possession of the property and then keeps or uses the property in an unauthorised way;
- Section 4 "property" includes all personalty, i. In the Criminal law, an omission, or failure to act will constitute an Actus reus ( Latin for "guilty act" and give rise to liability e. land itself cannot be stolen but anything severed from the land (with the exception of wild flowers) can be stolen, as can intangible property such as a chose in action; however it seems that the term does not extend to all intangible property, as information (Oxford v. Moss) and trade secrets (R v. Chose (pronounced "shows" French for "thing" a term used in the Common law tradition in different senses Oxford v Moss ( 1979) 68 Cr App Rep 183 is an English Criminal law case dealing with Theft, Intangible property Absolom, The Times, 14th September 1983) have been held not to fall within the Section 4 definition of property.
- Section 5 "belonging to another" requires a distinction to be made between ownership, possession and control:
-
- ownership is where a person is not legally accountable to anyone else for the use of the property:
- possession is where a person is only because it had been physically removed but there were two issues to be decided:
- did the car "belong to another"? The garage had a lien i. In Law, a lien is a form of Security interest granted over an item of Property to secure the payment of a Debt or performance of some other e. a "proprietary right or interest" in the car as security for the unpaid bill and this gave the garage a better right than the owner to possess the car at the relevant time.
- what was the relevance of Turner's belief that he could not steal his own property? The defence of mistake of law) only applies if the defendant honestly believes that he has a right in law to act in the given way. Mistake of law is a legal principle referring to one or more errors that were made by a person in understanding how the applicable law applied to their past activity that is under Generalised and non-specific beliefs about what the law might permit are not a defence.
- Section 6 "with the intent to permanently deprive the other of it" is sufficiently flexible to include situations where the property is later returned. For example, suppose that B, a keen football fan, has bought a ticket for the next home match. T takes the ticket, watches the match and then returns the ticket to B. In this instance, all that T returns is a piece of paper. Its value as a licence to enter the stadium on a particular day has been permanently lost. Hence, T steals the ticket. Similarly, if T takes a valuable antique but later repents and returns the goods, T has committed the actus reus with the mens rea. Actus reus, sometimes called the external element or the objective element of a crime is the Latin term for the "guilty act" which when proved In Criminal law, mens rea the Latin term for "guilty mind" is usually one of the necessary elements of a Crime. The fact that T's conscience forces a change of mind is relevant only for sentencing. In Law, a sentence forms the final act of a Judge -ruled process and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function
The maximum sentence in the Crown Court is seven years (section 7). For the TV programme see Crown Court (TV series. The Crown Court of England and Wales is together with the High Court of Justice
If the act of stealing is already complete before another comes into possession of the goods, this may be handling. In English Criminal law, handling takes place after the Theft is completed and is committed by a fence or other person who helps the thief to realise For alternative charges involving deceptions, see the deception offences and the Theft Act 1978 which may overlap with s1 Theft. In English law, the main deception offences are defined in the Theft Act 1968 (TA68 the Theft Act 1978 and the Theft (Amendment Act 1996 The Theft Act 1978 supplemented the earlier Deception offences in English law contained in sections 15 and 16 of the Theft Act 1968 by reforming some aspects of those For the theft of motor vehicles with or without violence, see robbery, blackmail and TWOC. Robbery is the Crime of seizing Property through Violence or Intimidation. Blackmail is the crime of threatening to reveal substantially true information about a person to the public a family member or associates unless a demand made upon the A TWOC can also be a medical procedure - a trial without Catheter TWOC is an Acronym standing for Taking Without Owner's Consent.
Victoria - Australia North and south
Theft is defined at s. 72 of the Crimes Act 1958. The actus reus and mens rea are defined as follows:
Actus reus
Appropriation - defined at s. 73(4) of the Crimes Act 1958 as the assumption of any of the owners rights. It does not have be all the owner's rights, as long as at least one right has been assumed(Stein v Henshall). If the owner gave their consent to the appropriation there cannot be an appropriation(Baruday v R). However, if this consent is obtained by deception, this consent is vitiated.
Property - defined at s. 71(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 as being both tangible property, including money and intangible property. Information has been held not be property(Oxford v Moss).
Belonging to another - s. 73(5) that property belongs to another if that person has ownership, possession, or a proprietary interest in the property. Property can belong to more than one person. s. 73(9) & s. 73(10) deal with situations where the accused receives property under an obligation or by mistake.
Mens rea
Intention to permanently deprive - defined at s. 73(12) as treating property as it belongs to the accused, rather than the owner.
Dishonestly - s. 73(2) creates a negative definition of the term 'dishonestly'. The section deems only three circumstances when the accused is deemed to have been acting honestly. These are a belief in a legal claim of right (s. 73(2)(a)), a belief that the owner would have consented (s. 73(2)(b)), or a belief the owner could not be found(s. 73(2)(c))
United States
In the U. S. , plenary regulation of theft exists only at the state level, in the sense that most thefts by default will be prosecuted by the state in which the theft occurred. The federal government has criminalized certain narrow categories of theft which directly affect federal agencies or interstate commerce. Article 1 Section 8 Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause, states that Congress has the power to regulate commerce with foreign
Although many U.S. states have retained larceny as the primary offence,[1] some have now adopted theft provisions. A US state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States of America that share Sovereignty with the federal government In the United States, larceny is a Common law Crime involving Theft.
For example, California consolidated a variety of common law crimes into theft in 1927, and now distinguishes between two types of theft, grand theft and petty theft. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. [2] Grand theft generally consists of the theft of something of value over $400 (it can be money, labor or property),[3] while petty theft is the default category for all other thefts. [4] Grand theft is punishable by up to a year in jail or prison, and can either be seen as a misdemeanor or felony. [5] while petty theft is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or six months in jail. [6] As for the older crimes of larceny, embezzling, and stealing, any references to them now mean theft instead. [7]
In many states, grand theft of a vehicle is charged as "grand theft auto" (see motor vehicle theft for more information). This charge became the title of a popular series of video games about stealing cars even though this crime is not what the main plot of the game revolves around (see Grand Theft Auto (series)).
Repeat offenders who continue to steal may become subject to life imprisonment in certain states. Life imprisonment or life incarceration is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime often for most [8]
Canada
Theft is dealt with by Part 9 of the Criminal Code of Canada which is the part that covers property crime. The Criminal Code of Canada (long title An Act respecting the criminal law, R Section 322 in Part 9 creates a general definition of theft, while other sections such as section 326 (which deals with the theft of gas, electricity and telecommunication services) define special kinds of theft. According to the general definition in section 322 a person steals a thing if he or she takes or converts it fraudulently, without colour of right and with intent to deprive the owner of it, either permanently or temporarily. For the purposes of punishment theft is divided into two separate offences by section 334 depending on the value and nature of the goods stolen. If the thing stolen is worth more than $5000 or is a testamentary instrument the offence is commonly referred to as Theft Over $5000 and is an indictable offence with a maximum punishment of 10 years imprisonment. In many Common law Jurisdictions (eg the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Canada, United States, India, Where the stolen item is not a testamentary instrument and is not worth more than $5000 it is known as Theft Under $5000 and is a hybrid offence, meaning that it can be treated either as an indictable offence or a less serious summary conviction offence, depending on the choice of the prosecutor. A hybrid offence, dual offence, Crown option offence, dual procedure offence, or wobbler are the special class offences in the Common law A summary offense, also known as a petty crime, is a criminal act in some Common law jurisdictions that can be proceeded with summarily without the right If dealt with as an indictable offence Theft Under $5000 is punishable by imprisonment for not more than 2 years and, if treated as a summary conviction offence, 6 months imprisonment, a fine of $2000 or both.
Romania
By the Romanian Penal Code for theft (furt) a person can face a penalty ranging from 1 to 20 years. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania
Degrees of theft:
A: Theft (1 to 12 years)
When a person steals a thing, or uses a vehicle without permission and no aggravating circumstances applies.
B: Qualified theft (basically 3 to 15 years but there can be special cases when penalty range is from 4 to 18 years and even 10 to 20 years)
- Aggravating circumstances - 3 to 15 years: a) by two or more persons together b) by a person who detains a gun or a narcotic substance c) by a masked or disguised person d) against a person who is in impossibility of self defence e) in a public place f) in a public transportation vehicle g) during the night h) during a natural disaster i) by effraction, or by using an original or copyed key j) things belongs to the cultural patrimonium k) stealing official identity papers with intention to make use of them l) stealing official identity badges with intention to make use of them
- Aggravating circumstances - 4 to 18 years : a) stealing petrol based products directly from transportation pipes and vehicles or deposits b) stealing components from national electrification, telecommunication, irrigation networks or from any type of navigational system c) stealing a public alertation device d) stealing a public intervention vehicle or device e) when periclitating the safety of public transportation.
- Aggravating circumstances - 10 to 20 years : When the consequences are extremely grave and affects some public institutions or the material prejudice is over 2. 000. 000. 000 ROL.
Notes
- ^ See, e. g. , N. Y. Penal law sections 155. 00-155. 45, found at NY Assembly official web site. Accessed March 17, 2008.
- ^ California Penal Code Section 486. For the entire portion of the Penal Code covering theft, see Sections 484 through 502.9 at Findlaw.
- ^ California Penal Code Section 487.
- ^ California Penal Code Section 488.
- ^ California Penal Code Section 489,
- ^ California Penal Code Section 490.
- ^ California Penal Code Section 490a.
- ^ See Rummel v. Estelle, (upholding life sentence for fraudulent use of a credit card to obtain $80 worth of goods or services, passing a forged check in the amount of $28. 36, and obtaining $120. 75 by false pretenses) and Lockyer v. Andrade, (upholding sentence of 50 years to life for stealing videotapes on two separate occasions).
See also
- Anti-theft system
- Asset management (corporate theft prevention)
- Dishonesty
- Embezzlement
- Force-initiation
- Larceny
- Pickpocketing
Specific forms of theft
- Art theft
- Bandwidth theft
- Data theft
- Laptop theft
- Motor vehicle theft
- Street sign theft
- Theft of services
Categories
- Category: Bank robbers
- Category: Burglars
References
- Allen,Michael. An anti-theft system is any device or method used to prevent or deter the unauthorized appropriation of items considered valuable Dishonesty is a word which in common usage may be defined as the act or to act without honesty a lack of probity to cheat lying or being deliberately deceptive lacking in Embezzlement is the act of dishonestly appropriating or secreting assets usually financial in nature by one or more individuals to whom such assets have been entrusted The initiation of force is the start or beginning of the use of physical and/or legal Coercion, Violence, or Restraint. In the United States, larceny is a Common law Crime involving Theft. This article is about the crime For the Robert Bresson film see Pickpocket (film. Art theft is the Theft of Art. This is usually done for the purpose of resale or Ransom; occasionally thieves are also commissioned Inline linking (also known as hotlinking, leeching, piggy-backing, direct linking, offsite image grabs and bandwidth theft Data theft is a growing problem primarily perpetrated by office workers with access to technology such as Desktop computers and hand-held devices capable of storing digital information Laptop theft is a significant threat to users of Laptop computers Street sign theft occurs when street signs are stolen often to be used as decorations but also sometimes to avoid obeying the law by claiming later the sign was not there Theft of services is the legal term for a crime which is committed when a person obtains valuable services &mdash as opposed to goods &mdash by deception force threat or other Textbook on Criminal Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford. (2005) ISBN 0-19-927918-7.
- Criminal Law Revision Committee. 8th Report. Theft and Related Offences. Cmnd. 2977
- Griew, Edward. Theft Acts 1968 & 1978, Sweet & Maxwell. ISBN 0-421-19960-1
- Ormerod, David. Smith and Hogan Criminal Law, LexisNexis, London. (2005) ISBN 0-406-97730-5
- Maniscalco, Fabio, Theft of Art (in Italian), Naples - Massa (2000) ISBN 88-87835-00-4
- Smith, J. C. Law of Theft, LexisNexis: London. (1997) ISBN 0-406-89545-7.
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