ABSTRACT
Broadly speaking, property crime involves stealing and dishonestly obtaining or damaging another’s property, whether tangible goods or intangible property. All this may seem very straightforward. However, the distinction between what is unambiguously criminal and what is culturally tolerated behaviour is not always so clear-cut. For example, the dishonest acquisition of another’s property is not always perceived as ‘theft’ by the offender or by the victim. Pickpocketing is seen as unacceptable and criminal, whereas hotel employees stealing food, wine or cash and hotel guests stealing linen, art or silverware from their rooms may be tolerated by the victim or justified as ‘perks’ or ‘souvenirs’ by the perpetrator. Similarly, we tend to associate ‘fraud’ with crime for gain or major financial scandals (see Chapter 13).Yet it is not always easy to draw a line between ‘enterprise’ and ‘dishonesty’, or between dishonest behaviour that is clearly ‘illegal’ and the hustles, scams and confidence tricks of ‘con merchants’, false advertising of salespersons or pyramid schemes, and the behaviour of many others involved in everyday commercial exchanges.
