Week 8 Discussion 1

Explain why it is necessary to define the difference between the crime of theft, the crime of robbery, and the crime of extortion, and speculate on what problems might be caused if they were not.

The difference between the crime of theft, the crime of robbery, and the crime of extortion consist of variables that allow the charging of different criminal offenses. Theft is the taking of another’s property and does not require the presence of the owner to be there but has the intent to take something that belongs to another whereas robbery requires the victim to be present, inflicts bodily harm upon another, threatens another with or purposely puts him/her in fear of serious bodily injury or commits a felony of the 1st or 2nd degree.

Theft and robbery are totally different from extortion because it requires the threat of violence to achieve an end goal … which is either money a required act.

Differences between the three below:

Reference to: Criminal Law, Gardner/Anderson, 11th edition

Extortion
Future threat of harm to victim
Future compliance to deliver
Crime of extortion – no presence needed – telephone, mail – federal offense
To avoid force threatened victim must pay amount demanded

Threat of:

Destruction of property
Kidnapping or threats to injure victim or family

Loss of reputation
1. Good name
2. Business reputation

Creating a scandal by exposing a secret or family illness, slander, defamation, libel

Robbery

Immediate threat and harm to victim
Immediate compliance to deliver
Crime of robbery in presence of victim
Immediate force is threatened to use or compel acquiesce
N/A
N/A
N/A

Theft

No necessary harm but removal of property by taking
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A

Problems that might occur are:

Improperly arraigned resulting in years penalized to serve (inappropriate sentencing), misconceptions during trial, possible additional charges may not be actualized.

Robberies and burglaries are often random crimes, with the victims and perpetrators having no previous acquaintance. Because of this randomness, they are the scariest of crimes. Discuss whether ordinary citizens are better off owning or carrying guns for protection.

Gun owning or toting is a serious endeavor and with it comes great responsibility. Having the ability to wisely own and use good self counsel is what it takes to own and retain ownership of a gun. The thought of someone stealing a weapon owned by me is rather frightening and using it because as the owner I am liable for that weapon whereabouts all the time and I really don’t want to tempt anybody or deal with this situation.