Crimes Against Property

Crimes Against Property
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Crimes Against Property
Strayer University
Assignment #5
CRJ105 Online Winter 2012
Felicia McCaw
Crimes Against Property
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ABSTRACT



Based on an online article (Looting, arson spread widely in London, as civil unrest escalates) published by The Washington Post with foreign policy dated and published August 8, 2011 discussed is the Crime of Arson in London, England.


































Crimes Against Property
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Arson is one of the most troublesome burdens and misfortunes of any time period. It is the willful destruction of another’s property by setting fire to building structures, vehicles, dwellings and any personal property. Further it is described as an act of malice to burn or attempt to burn with or without the intent to obtain monetary gains. To be classified as an act of arson the FBI has to do a thorough investigation to determine true classification. An act of arson occurs because some people get a thrill from setting fires or may do it as an act of vengeance. Consequently, most cases of arson are usually done to defraud insurance companies and it is listed in the United Crime Report – National Incident Based Reporting System and is a Part II Offense. The crime data states only fires that have been deliberately set are investigated and compiled into reports (arson data collection). Information compiled reflects that in the year of 2010, 15,475 law enforcement agencies reported information based on structures (residential, storages and public, etc.) and mobile property. Further that these crimes are serious, deliberate and costly to insurance companies.
On August 8, 2011 a wave of civil unrest broke out in London, England causing widespread chaos that resulted in rampant looting and supports the explanation of what arson is and that is deliberately set fires that shocked the citizens of this city less than one year before the start of the 2012 Olympic Games. Hundreds of youths scavenged the city looting, rioting and setting businesses ablaze and clashing with police in several neighborhoods. Working feverishly the police and fireman tried to get control of the situation and hundreds of reinforcements and volunteer offices joined in to keep pace and nullify the violence.

Types of Crimes
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Evolving from this wave of violence and arson a140 year old Reeves furniture was disintegrated in a pile of rubble on Monday night. Tuesday an even larger and vicious act of arson demolished and destroyed a Sony distribution center which was probably set by youth who were witnessed having and carrying molotov cocktails. Most of the violence occurred in the poorer neighborhoods a distance from the central heart of London and even in some of the more elegant neighborhoods of Clapham. Two hundred fifty people were arrested and sixty-nine was charged with offenses.
A motive for the avalanche of violence was given to be civil unrest (fatal shooting of a black resident by police investigating gun crimes) as indicated by the article reflecting severe and huge costly losses and will take time to reconcile before the Olympic Games of 2012 are initiated. Shocking though the scene may be a mob gathering looses its feel of responsibility and acts as one and is further fed by violence and feelings of euphoria of committing a crime that they feel they can get away with. Because of the spiraling and sprawling crime scene growing most of the activity happened in poor sections where there is a large impoverished population who resent having lack and this incident of civil unrest allowed them to take their frustration out on the community in acts of thievery and destruction.
Preventive strategies that were taken to halt the violence were placed into effect in every community and are based on societal and legalistic norms. Because the rampant violence was set off by a trigger effect of racial and civil unrest the criminal activity may have been prevented if tear gas could have been used to secure the arrest of the black resident since this ignited and sparked the violence.
REFERENCES

(FBI-UCR, 2010)
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/data_quality_guidelines
Faiola, Anthony. (2011, August 8). Looting, arson spread widely in London, as civil unrest escalates. The Washington Post with foreign policy.

Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/looting-arson-spread-widely-in-london-as-civil-unrest-escalates/2011/08/08/gIQAkUW12I_story.html