1. Chapter 11 Crimes against Property
Frank Schmalleger
PowerPoint presentation created by
Ellen G. Cohn, Ph.D.

2. Persistent and Professional Thieves
Professional criminal:
A criminal offender who makes a living from criminal pursuits, is recognized by other offenders as a professional, and engages in offending that is planned and calculated
Persistent thief:
One who continues in common-law property crimes despite no better than an ordinary level of success

3. Persistent and Professional Thieves
Offense specialization:
A preference for engaging in a certain type of offense to the exclusion of others
Cafeteria-style offending:
The heterogeneous and unplanned nature of offending among gang members
Occasional offender:
A criminal offender whose offending patterns are guided primarily by opportunity

4. Criminal Careers of Property Offenders
Criminal behavior as an integrated, dynamic structure of sequential unlawful acts that advances within a wider context of causal and correlative influences (biological, psychological, informal social, formal criminal justice origins, etc.)
Involves a rational progression through defined stages

5. Criminal Careers of Property Offenders
Phases of the criminal career of property offenders:
Break-in period
Stable period
Burnout phase

6. Property Offenders and Rational Choice
Rationality:
Activities identified by their impersonal, methodological, efficient, and logical components
Burglars employ a “limited, temporal rationality”
Partial and limited, not total

7. Larceny-Theft UCR definition:
The unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession, or constructive possession, of another
Does not involve force or other means of illegal entry
Generally less frightening than burglar
A crime of opportunity

8. Prevalence and Profile of Larceny-Theft
Most frequently-occurring property offense
Theft from motor vehicles is largest category
Pocket picking and purse snatching fairly rare
Thefts from large structures (buildings) generate greater losses than petty-level personal thefts
Over 1/3rd of all losses are under $50

9. Theft on College Campuses
Larceny is the most frequent crime on college campuses
University staff at highest risk, followed by faculty
Students have lowest rates of theft victimization
Campus design is a major determinant of differences in theft rates

10. Motor Vehicle Theft UCR definition: Given special focus by UCR:
The theft or attempted theft of a motor vehicle
Automobiles are the most commonly-stolen type of vehicle
Given special focus by UCR:
Frequency of crime
Cultural association of automobiles with status

11. Prevalence and Profile of Motor Vehicle Theft
Largest percentage of vehicles stolen from parking lot or garage
Significant percentage stolen at or near residence of victim
Highly-reported crime, especially completed thefts

12. Prevalence and Profile of Motor Vehicle Theft
Reasons for motor vehicle theft
Joyriding
Temporary transportation needs
Use in a crime
Stripping

13. Theft of Car Parts Motivations
Car parts may be worth a lot
Can be sold easily
Harder to identify than entire cars
External vehicle parts most frequently stolen items

14. Joyriders: Car Theft for Fun
Committed by groups of teens for fun
Expressive act with little or no extrinsic value
Most vehicles stolen by joyriders are recovered
Usually abandoned
Often after having been crashed

15. Jockeys: Car Theft for Profit
A professional car thief involved regularly in calculated, steal-to-order car theft
The most serious and costly form of auto theft
Less common than thefts for other uses
Planning and calculation involved in target selection
Lowest auto recovery rates

16. Shoplifting and Employee Theft
Employee theft causes more loss to retailers than shoplifting
Efforts to combat shoplifting might impact sales
Technology is one of the best ways to address both types of theft

17. Shoplifting Who shoplifts?
Juveniles are overrepresented
Occurs across all social classes but appears to be more common in lower-income groups
Not committed primarily by women
Appears to be one of several forms of deviant behavior during adolescence
May be a gateway offense to more serious and chronic types of offending

18. Meaningful Typologies for Shoplifting
Mary Owen Cameron
Boosters
Snitches
Richard H. Moore
Impulsive shoplifters
Occasional shoplifters
Episodic shoplifters
Amateur shoplifters
Semiprofessional shoplifters

19. Meaningful Typologies for Shoplifting
Frank McShane and Barrie A. Noonan
Rebels
Reactionaries
Enigmas
Infirm

20. Burglary UCR definition:
Unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft
Residential burglaries do not involve direct confrontation between victim and offender but can cause fear with lasting effects
Commercial burglaries can affect the continued viability of the business

21. The Social Ecology of Burglary
Routine activities theory
Motivated offender
Suitable target
Absence of capable guardians
Burglary is affected by
Changes in technology
Changes in production and distribution of services and goods
Changes in population structure

22. Types of Burglars Neil Shover Low-level burglars Middle-range burglars
High-level burglars

23. Burglary Locales
Nighttime residential and daytime commercial burglary are considered the most serious
Burglary is a “cold crime”
Little physical evidence to link the offender to the crime
The burglar is gone before the victims realize they have been burglarized and call the police

24. The Motivation of Burglars
The most prevalent rationale is the need for fast cash
Selection of burglary as the “crime of choice”
Burglary is familiar, the “main line”
It is less risky than other offenses
The offender may not own the necessary equipment for robbery

25. Target Selection Commercial burglaries Suitability
Retail establishments preferred
Merchandise is exposed
Merchandise is new and has a high resale value
Offender does not need to spend intrusion time searching for the “loot”

26. Target Selection Residential burglaries
Key factors in target selection
Knowledge of occupants
Receive tip
Observe potential target
Other factors influencing target selection
Signs of occupancy
Security devices
Dogs
Accessible area

27. Costs of Burglary Economic loss very common in burglary
Property/money stolen
Time lost from work
Property crimes have a greater effect on the decision to move than violent crimes

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

29. The Sexualized Context of Burglary
Burglaries with “hidden sexual forces lying at their root” (rather than economic gain)
Fetishes
Voyeuristic burglaries
Can be explained from the perspective of opportunity theory
Home-intrusion rape

30. Stolen Property Basic elements: Fence Buying and receiving
Knowing it to be stolen
Fence
Least common method of disposing of stolen goods for majority of thieves
Most common method used by professional burglars

31. The Role of Criminal Receivers
Cromwell’s typology
Professional receiver
Avocational receiver
Amateur receiver

32. Arson UCR definition Motives vary from profit to thrill seeking
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, or personal property of another
Motives vary from profit to thrill seeking
Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996

33. Fire Setters The majority of those involved in arson are juveniles
General 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