ABSTRACT
Even after adding the new crimes, the technicalities made application of the laws involving theft very difficult. As the law developed in England and in the United States, criminal statutes were enacted to make it a crime to commit various types of cheating and fraud. The extensive use of checks and other commercial paper made it necessary that specific statutes be developed to punish the making of false documents or altering documents with the intent to defraud. Crimes continue to be defined as technology and business practices create the opportunities for new ways to victimize. Today, many states have abolished the separate offenses of larceny, embezzlement, and related theft crimes, and combined them into new, comprehensive theft statutes.
