Theft Law

Our mission consists of remaining the premier aggregator and disseminator of information on auto theft to the general public. The latest FBI Uniform Crime Reports said that motor vehicle thefts in 2001 were up 5.7 percent over 2000. An estimated 1.2 million vehicle thefts were reported in 2001. The average value of motor vehicles stolen was $6,646. The estimated total value of all motor vehicles stolen was $8.2 billion. Approximately 62 percent of that amount was recovered.

Art and cultural property crime - which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines -- is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program defines larceny-theft as the unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Examples are thefts of bicycles, motor vehicle parts and accessories, shoplifting, pocket-picking, or the stealing of any property or article that is not taken by force and violence or by fraud. Attempted larcenies are included. Embezzlement, confidence games, forgery, check fraud, etc., are excluded.

Larceny generally refers to nonviolent theft. It is a common-law term developed by the royal courts of England in the seventeenth century. In the United States, most jurisdictions have eliminated the crime of Larceny from statutory codes, in favor of a general theft statute. The crime of larceny was developed to punish the taking of property in nonviolent face-to-face encounters, and to set it apart from Robbery. Robbery involved some measure of violence in connection with theft, and the courts did not feel that a nonviolent theft should warrant the same punishment. Larceny was nevertheless punished severely. A person convicted of larceny could receive the death penalty or be sentenced to many years in prison.

Central to NIBRS is the concept of a crime incident. An "incident" is defined for NIBRS reporting purposes as one or more offenses committed by the same offender, or group of offenders acting in concert, at the same time and place. "Acting in concert" requires that the offenders actually commit or assist in the commission of the crime(s). The offenders must be aware of, and consent to, the commission of the crime(s); or even if nonconsenting, their actions assist in the commission of the offense(s). This is important because all of the offenders in an incident are considered to have committed all of the offenses in the incident. If one or more of the offenders did not act in concert, then there is more than one incident involved.

Although it is called the National Stolen Property Act, the term "property" itself appears only in the second paragraph of 18 U.S.C. § 2314 (which was added in 1956) and can be interpreted in that paragraph as including all forms of property, both personal and real. However, in the first paragraphs of 18 U.S.C. § § 2314 and 2315 the statutory language utilized is "goods, wares, merchandise, securities or money."

The United States No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), a federal law passed in 1997, provides for criminal prosecution of individuals who engage in copyright infringement, even when there is no monetary profit or commercial benefit from the infringement. Maximum penalties can be five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. The NET Act also raised statutory damages by 50%.

DEA is publishing this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to propose the clarification of its policies and procedures regarding the reporting by registrants of the theft or significant loss of controlled substances.

The following informational brochure contains suggestions on reducing the potential for theft in the workplace.

In criminal law, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's freely-given consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting, fraud and sometimes criminal conversion. In some jurisdictions, theft is considered to be synonymous with larceny; in others, theft has replaced larceny.

Every American knows the name of the agency that delivers their mail--the U.S. Postal Service handles 668 million pieces of mail every day. The vast majority of it arrives intact, but thieves get to some of it before delivery. Did you know that it's U.S. Postal Inspectors who investigate mail thefts? They get high ratings for their work, in the last year alone arresting over 6,000 theft suspects.

The mission of the United States Secret Service is to safeguard the nation's financial infrastructure and payment systems to preserve the integrity of the economy, and to protect national leaders, visiting heads of state and government, designated sites and National Special Security Events.

For the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), the definition of identity theft includes three behaviors: * unauthorized use or attempted use of existing credit cards * unauthorized use or attempted use of other existing accounts, such as checking accounts * misuse of personal information to obtain new accounts or loans, or to commit other crimes.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, property crime makes up slightly more than three-quarters of all crime in the United States. This fact highlights the need for our association. It makes sense that improved coordination among investigators is beneficial. Our association provides networking and training in all areas of property crime investigations. We have leading experts in property crime investigations willing to assist fellow members. No other organization in the world brings together everyone who investigates property crime.

LawForKids.org is America's first stand alone web site dedicated to teaching children about the law. The Site was created by the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education with the specific goal of educating Arizona's youth, their parents, communities and schools to increase their knowledge about youth laws and to encourage law-abiding behavior.

Homeowners who become victims of theft are likely to experience a great deal of stress as they struggle to remember the items in their home for purposes of filing a police report or insurance claim. In addition, “most homeowners simply don’t have the proof required to maximize their insurance claim” according to Fred Knapp, Director of The National Association of Home Inventory Professionals (NAHIP), a highly dedicated group of professionals working to ensure the protection of home and small business owners by providing property documentation services.

In these times of economic distress, many people are concerned about the threat of rising crime in their communities. Fortunately, there are ways to help protect your home and your neighborhood from crime. From simple steps like keeping your doors locked to starting a Neighborhood Watch program, there are plenty of things you can do to prevent crime.

Is workplace theft really that bad? Is it something really necessary to be alarmed about? If you own or operate a business, it is. According to American DataBank, $120 billion annually are lost through employee theft. And in his book (Biting the Hand that Feeds), Terry Shulman relates that 20% of every company's dollar is spent on employee theft. Those numbers aren't huge...they're astronomical.

Unfortunately, as we hear every single day, being smart is NOT enough to protect yourself from dangerous Internet scams, frustrating spam, or devious identity theft.

Articles written by attorneys and experts worldwide discussing legal aspects related to Criminal Law including: arson, assault, battery, bribery, burglary, child abuse, child pornography, computer crime, controlled substances, credit card fraud, criminal defense, criminal law, drugs and narcotics, DUI, DWI, embezzlement, fraud, expungements, felonies, homicide, identity theft, manslaughter, money laundering, murder, perjury, prostitution, rape, RICO, robbery, sex crimes, shoplifting, theft, weapons, white collar crime and wire fraud.