History of Theft

• Larceny (stealing) is the oldest crime against property.
• All other theft offenses descent from this ancient crime of sneaking away with someone else’s property.
• Larceny developed at common law as a protection of the ancient Anglo-Saxons’ most valuable possession—livestock.
• People on the western frontier in the US placed similar value on cattle and horses.
• Larceny left two big gaps in the protection of property.
• Taking someone else’s property by force instead of sneaking away with it, and keeping property that the owner had voluntarily handed over to a caretaker.
• Early in legal history, taking property by force grew into the separate offense of robbery, a violent felony against people as well as their property.

Larceny

• For 500 years, larceny has included 5 elements:

1. Wrongfully taking and
2. Carrying away
3. The property
4. Of another
5. With the intent to permanently deprive the holder of its possession

• Notice that larceny is a crime against possession as well as ownership; and it is a crime against permanent, not temporary, possession.

Larceny Actus Reus

• Larceny actus reus consists of two elements:

1. Taking.
2. Carrying away (also called asportation).

• The element of taking requires getting control, however briefly, of someone else’s property

Direct and Indirect Taking

• Taking includes direct taking, such as picking a pocket, lifting objects from a shop, or stealing a car.
• Sometimes, indirect taking is enough.
• Example: suppose I see someone’s unlocked bicycle parked outside a shop. I offer to sell the bicycle to an unsuspecting passerby for forty dollars. She accepts, pays me, and takes off on the bike. In most states, I have taken the bicycle.

Carrying Away

• Carrying away means that someone else’s property is moved from the place where it was taken.
• Carrying the property for a short distance, even a few inches, is enough.
• All that is required is that the property actually move from the exact spot where it was taken.

Lawful Possession of Another’s Property

• Problems arise when a person who takes and carries away another’s property already lawfully possesses it.
• In the law of larceny, physical custody for a particular purpose (such as a bank teller holding money) differs from legal possession (such as owning a TV, or renting a computer)
• Custodians for particular purposes can wrongfully take and carry away property they have in their possession so they can commit larceny.
• However, lawful possessors can’t commit larceny because they can’t "take" what they already have (think recovery agent)

Three Rules of Determining a "Taking"

1. Employees don’t possess their employers’ goods; they have mere custody of them.
2. Those who hand over their personal property for repairs haven't given up possession.
3. Money given to tellers or others for change don’t transfer possession, only custody.

Finders keepers, Losers Weepers

• Larceny law doesn’t follow this old rhyme.
• Owners who lose their property keep possession for the purposes of larceny law.
• So, those who take and carry away lost money or other property satisfy the actus reus of larceny.

The Value of the Property

• Common law larceny applied only to personal property.
• So, you couldn’t steak real estate or anything attached to it, stocks and bonds, services, or labor.
• Modern statutes have greatly expanded the property you can steal (money, stocks, bonds, utilities, services, entertainment, etc)
• The value of the property stolen usually determines the seriousness of the crime: the higher the value, the more serious the larceny.
• Grand larceny, a felony punishable by one year or more in prison, includes property that exceeds a statutorily specified dollar amount, typically between $100 and $400.
• Property worth less than the designated amount for grand larceny is usually included in the misdemeanor petty larceny, which is punishable by less than a year and jail and / or a fine.
• Money value doesn’t always determine the grade of larceny.
• Sometimes it is the method used to take the property.
• Pickpocketing, for example, is always a felony, and so is taking property from someone’s home.
• These cases involve more interest than just property—they are also crimes against persons or habitations.
• The item taken can also determine seriousness—Texas, for example, makes it a felony to steal natural oil, no matter the amount.

Larceny Mens Rea

• Common law larceny is a crime of purpose.
• Thieves had to intent to permanently deprive the rightful possessor of their property.
• Most states permit defendants to invoke a claim of right defense that allows them to claim that they didn’t intend to permanently take someone else’s property when they believed it to be their own.
• Modern statutes have made some temporary deprivations—such as joyriding—separate crimes.

Embezzlement

• Historically, you couldn’t take property that someone voluntarily handed over to you.
• The English parliament created embezzlement during the period when temporary possessors (legally known as bailees) were becoming common.
• The crime of embezzlement brought the law of larceny up to date by making it a crime for parking lot attendants, dry cleaners, repair people, bank tellers and others to lawfully get possession of someone else’s property and later convert it to their own use.
• Legally speaking, converting in embezzlement substitutes for taking in larceny.
• Notice that conversion can only take place when possession is lawfully acquired.

False Pretenses

• This crime covers owners who are tricked into parting with their possessions because they’re deceived into giving up ownership.
• The deceivers don’t have any right to possess the property, but they haven't taken it because the owners willingly gave it to them.
• Trick replaces taking in larceny and converting in embezzlement as the actus reus.
• Trick requires a lie, like a promised to deliver something the person making it cant or doesn’t intend to keep.
• The law often expresses this as falsely representing a material past or existing fact.

False Pretense Mens Rea

Circumstance Elements

Consolidated Theft Statutes

Receiving Stolen Property

• Not only is it a crime to take or convert someone else’s property, it is also a crime to receive property after it’s been criminally misappropriated.
• Called receiving stolen property, this offense aims to punish those who stand to benefit from someone else’s property even though he or she didn’t participate in the wrongful acquisition in the first place.
• Most who benefit are fences, those who sell stolen merchandise for profit.
• But so do the people who buy the stolen stuff at greatly reduced prices.
• The actus reus is receiving the stolen property.
• The mens rea varies from state to state, some states require knowingly receiving stolen goods, and some even allow for negligence.

Forgery

• Making false legal documents or altering existing ones, such as checks, deeds, bonds, and credit cards.
• Actus reus: sign, or alter, or make
• Mens Rea: intent to deceive
• Circumstance: Document of legal significance

Uttering

• Uttering means to pass false documents on to others (not to make them—that’s forgery)
• Actus reus: passing
• Mens rea: purposely deceiving or knowingly passing a false document
• Circumstance: document of legal significance

Robbery

Robbery Elements

Robbery has six elements:

1. Taking and
2. Carrying away
3. The property of others
4. From their person or in their presence
5. By immediate force or threatened immediate force
6. With the intent to permanently dispossess the rightful possessor.

Force

• Any force beyond the amount needed to take and carry away someone else’s property is enough.
• Picking a pocket isn't robbery because picking pockets requires only enough force to remove the contents of the pocket.
• But slightly mishandling the victim (such as shoving) turns the pickpocket into a robber.
• Robbery doesn’t require actual force; the threat of force is enough.
• Also, robbers don’t have to threaten victims directly; threats to family members can satisfy the force requirement.
• However, robbers to have to threaten their victims with death or great bodily injury.
• Threats to property generally are not enough.

Extortion

• At common law, extortion applied only to public officials who used their influence illegally to collect fees.
• Most modern extortions were not known to the common law, although unusually extreme threats to get property were considered robbery.
• The actus reus of extortion, like robbery, is a threat to get a person’s property by doing the person some harm.
• The difference is that with extortion, the harm comes at some future time (not immediately as with robbery).

Threats to harm victims in three ways satisfy the requirements of extortion:

1. To inflict future bodily harm
2. To damage property
3. To expose victims to shame or ridicule

Extortion Mens Rea

• The mens rea of extortion is the specific intent to obtain property by threat.
• Some statutes require the circumstance element that blackmailers get the desired property.
• Others say I is enough to make threats with a present intention to carry them out.
• Either way, the victim must be put into actual fear.

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