Text 12

THEFT

Text 11

ARSON

In common law, arson consisted of setting fire to the dwelling of another person. In English law any kind of damage deliberately caused by fire – even setting fire to rubbish – is now arson, but generally setting fire to a building is necessary. The gravity of the crime may depend on the extent to which life is endangered – the law may distinguish between arson endangering life, or arson of occupied buildings, and other forms of arson, but most systems consider the crime a serious one. The motivation of those who commit arson differs – arson may be committed as an act of revenge against an employer or by a jealous lover, for example, or by persons who find excitement in fires or have pathological impulses to set fires. Pathological ehavior or feelings happen regularly, are Unreasonable, and impossible to control. Pupils out of resentment or simple vandalism sometimes set schools on fire. [Resentment is a feeling of anger because something has happened that you think is unfair. Vandalism is the crime of deliberately damaging things, especially public property.] Some arson is more rationally motivated – a burglar may set fire to a house to conceal the evidence of his crime, as may an employee who is anxious to conceal accounts from an auditor. [Burglar is someone who gets into houses, shops etc to steal things. Auditor is someone whose job is to officially examine a company’s financial records.] Another phenomenon is setting fire to premises belonging to the fire setter in order to make a fraudulent insurance claim.

Theft (or larceny) is probably the most common crime involving a criminal intent. The crime of grand larceny in some U.S. jurisdictions consists of stealing more than a specified sum of money or property worth more than a specified amount. The traditional definition of theft specified the physical removal of an object that was capable of being stolen, without the consent of the owner and with the intention of depriving the owner of it forever. This intention, which has always been an essential feature of theft, does not necessarily mean that the thief must intend to keep the property – an intention to destroy it, or to abandon it in circumstances where it will not be found, is sufficient. In many legal systems the old definition has been found to be inadequate to deal with modern forms of property that may not be physical or tangible (a bank balance, for instance, or data stored on a computer), and more sophisticated definitions of theft have been adopted in modern legislation. The distinction that the common law made between theft (taking without consent) and fraud (obtaining with consent, as a result of deception) has been preserved in many modern laws, but the two crimes are rarely regarded as mutually exclusive, as they were in the past. It is now accepted that an act may constitute both theft and fraud, as in the theft and subsequent sale of an automobile. Burglary is the crime of breaking into a dwelling or into a building by night with intent to commit a felony or to steal things. The essence of burglary is normally the entry into a building with a criminal intent. Entry without the intent to commit a crime is merely a trespass, which is not criminal in many jurisdictions. Although the motivation of most burglars is theft, but it is possible, for instance, to commit burglary with intent to rape. Robbery is the commission of theft in circumstances of violence. It involves the application or the threat of force in order to commit the theft. Robbery takes many forms – from the mugging of a stranger in the street, in the hope of stealing whatever he may happen to have in his possession, to much more sophisticated robberies of banks, involving numerous participants and careful planning.

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