Crime Against Property
Prabhjot Kaur Dhami
College of the Rockies
November 30, 2018
This paper was prepared for CRIM 101, taught by Avery Hulbert
This assignment contains original work created by me, all my sources of information are cited and referenced.
Crime Against Property
There is a serious issue going on these days in the society that is crime. Crime is any action that is punishable by the judiciary and unethical for the society. Crime against property is the part of the crime and it is referred as the activities performed to do motor vehicle theft, shoplifting, theft or to possess the property of someone else. This is a serious issue and it needs to be resolved. The assigned typology is the crime against property. This paper will discuss the case of four people, two men and two women, who have been charged with 87 offences including motor vehicle theft, stolen credit card, fraud and many other crimes. The police from different departments and cities collaborated and identified the culprits. A significant number of firearms, stollen thing and mails were recovered which affected a total of 2194 people. The suspects were arrested from Surrey. The police however, addressed the measures that should be taken by the local people to avoid these crimes.The case taken for the paper is referred by CTV News Calgary and CBC news. This paper will first discuss the case study and criminal behaviour followed by the criminological theory along with its applications.
The case chosen belongs to the category, crime against property. The case is named “Four people charged in break and enter spree in Calgary” by CTV News Calgary and “Calgary police lay 87 charges after break-and-enter investigation” by CBC News. These both cases are identical. The case address that the four people, two men and two women, were arrested after a series of break and enters happened and also the theft of more than five thousand mails which belongs to almost four thousand people (CTV news & CBC, 2018). The suspects were aged between 25-35 years (CTV news & CBC, 2018). A number of agencies collaborated and identified the offenders (CTV news & CBC, 2018).“The three suspects were arrested when a search warrant was executed by a police on a house in the 9000 block of Bridleridge Green S.W.” (CTV news, 2018). “The suspects were named Robert Paul Allard, age 30, Steven Edward Hart, age 34, Courtney Lee Delf, age 29 and Laetitia Angelique Acera, age 25” (CTV news & CBC, 2018). The significant number of stolen property, mails and seven firearms were taken into custody by police (CTV news & CBC, 2018). According to the Staff Sergeant Todd Nichol, the large proportion of stolen mails were form insecure mailboxes (CTV news, 2018). The suspects were charged with the 87 offences including,
• break and enter (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• motor vehicle theft (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• disguise to commit an indictable offence (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• possession of stolen property over $5,000 (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• possession of stolen property under $5,000 (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• use of a stolen credit card (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• fraud under $5,000 (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• identity theft (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• breach of probation (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• unsafe storage of a firearm (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• possess firearm obtained by crime (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• knowing possession of an unlicensed firearm (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• possess weapon contrary to a prohibition order (CTV news & CBC, 2018)
• possession of stolen mail (CTV news & CBC, 2018).
These charges were also addressed by CTV News Calgary and CBC news. The police guided people to protect themselves and park their vehicles and other stuff at a safe place in the night (CTV news, 2018). The media sources (CTV and CBC), both described the scenario equally. However, the CTV news published the sayings of the Staff Sergeant that the mails were stolen from unsecure mail boxes. This statement is missing in the news published by CBC news. In contrast, CBC news addressed the conclusion date of investigation which is November 22, 2018. This is missing in CTV news report. This is the difference between both the news articles from the two media sources.
The Criminal Code of Canada is law which helps to assign codes to he different criminal activities and gives the detail of the punishment that should be given to the offenders based on their offence. The four criminals in the above scenario, were accused of theft, crime against property, firearms, break and enter, fraud and stealing a vehicle. There is a different set of punishments for all these major issues outlined by media sources. In the case of break and enter, the punishment will be an imprisonment for not more than two years (Criminal Code of Canada, 2018). For the possession of a weapon the imprisonment will be not more than 10 years, Similarly, for stealing a vehicle the subjects will be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than five years (Criminal Code of Canada, 2018). The punishment for theft is imprisonment for not more that two years however, if the stolen thing values more than five thousand dollars then the imprisonment can be of maximum ten years (Criminal Code of Canada, 2018). The fraud punishment can lead to two years of imprisonment if the offence is more than one million dollar (Criminal Code of Canada, 2018). In case, the fraud is affecting share market or price of anything for sale and even merchandise can lead to the imprisonment of fourteen years (Criminal Code of Canada, 2018). Therefore, this can be concluded that the maximum imprisonment for the offenders in above scenario can be ten years or even fourteen years if they fraud with share market or so.
There are several theories which can be used to relate with the case study. The General Strain Theory is the best theory which can explain the issue better than other theories. The General Strain Theory is sociological and criminological theory proposed by Robert Agnew (Kaufman, 2017). According to Anomie, crime is the result of lack of social rules and regulations (Kaufman, 2017). There are some societies which focus on specific goals but do not emphasize on the way to achieve the goals (Kaufman, 2017). Therefore, individuals attempt crime to achieve goals (Kaufman, 2017). “There is a relation between the crime, sources of strain and negative feelings” (Tibbetts and Hemmens, 2018). The negative emotions leads to the crime but the main reason is anger (Adler et.al, 2018). According to Agnew, the three types of relationships and strains produced are
Strain caused by failure- sometimes a person wants to get something but lacks money then they choose another method to achieve that thing no matter if the method is wrong (Adler et.al, 2018). Another example can be, if a student want to win student union election but fails. Then the stress can lead to quit schooling and doing unethical things (Adler et.al, 2018). Likewise, if a person is financially good and have a good education or job life but a stress in personal life then the stress can lead to the crime as well (Adler et.al, 2018).
Stressed caused by the removal of positivity from an individual- this means that if a subject loves someone or enjoys doing something or going somewhere but unfortunately that person, thing or place are separated from the subject (Adler et.al, 2018). This can arise the feeling of revenge thus, making the subject a criminal (Adler et.al, 2018).
Strain caused by presence of negative stimuli- if something bad happened in the life of a subject then the subject will either try to run away from the situation or want to take revenge (Adler et.al, 2018). This will arise crime.
Therefore, the purpose of the theory chosen is to describe the main causes behind a crime. These causes makes a person to commit crime.
The case study of four criminals relate with the General Strain Theory by Agnew. The reason behind this is that the suspects did the crime to earn money. This can be observed from the charges mentioned by the CTV and CBC news reports. The most of the charges were based on theft, vehicle theft, use of stolen credit card and possession of property under and over $5000 (CTV news & CBC, 2018). According to the Agnew, strain caused by failure makes a person achieve goal even by choosing a wrong path (Adler et.al, 2018). This can be related to the case study mentioned above. The criminals might fail in achieving their goal thus, opted for a crime path to fulfil their needs. In addition to this, this might happened that their beloveds were separated from them or something happened worth them which made them to commit crime. However, no proper evidence about the background of the criminals were stated by any media source but still it can be said that the crimes they commit were basically to achieve something or get money to fulfil their dreams. Therefore, it can be concluded that General Strain theory best explains their scenario. However, there is a conflict between the theory an scenario. As mentioned, the clear evidence of background of criminals were not given therefore in some parts it is hard to say that which theory suits best. In addition to this,Agnew said that “not all persons who experience strain become criminals” (Adler et.al, 2018). Some people try to avoid situations or perform some activities which can give them relief (Adler et.al, 2018). Nevertheless, considering the relations of strain and crime discussed by theory it can be stated that “the General Strain Theory can explain the criminal and negative behaviour like aggression property offence, drug abuse among people from all classes of the society” (Adler et.al, 2018).
Overall, it can be said that the crime against property refers to the crime which include shoplifting, theft or any activity which causes harm to someone else property. The criminals of the case study were charged with 87 charges and their maximum punishment according to Criminal Code of Canada can be ten to fourteen years. A theory was related with their doings but because of some limitations, lack of background information, that theory cannot be fully imposed on the behaviour of the above mentioned criminals.
Reference
Adler, F., Mueller, G. O., & Laufer, W. S. (2018). Criminology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
“Calgary Police Lay 87 Charges after Break-and-Enter Investigation | CBC News.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 29 Nov. 2018, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-police-break-and-enter-87-charges-1.4925851.
“Four People Charged in Break and Enter Spree in Calgary.” Calgary, 30 Nov. 2018, calgary.ctvnews.ca/four-people-charged-in-break-and-enter-spree-in-calgary-1.4197923.
Kaufman, J. M., & Agnew, R. (2017). Anomie, Strain and Subcultural Theories of Crime. Routledge.
Legislative Services Branch. “Consolidated Federal Laws of Canada, Criminal Code.” Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, 19 Nov. 2018, laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/page-83.html#h-106.
Tibbetts, S. G., & Hemmens, C. (2018). Criminological theory: A Text/Reader. Los Angeles: Sage.