ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 begins the discussion of specific criminal offences and their enforcement in criminal justice by discussing the most common offences against property that exist as part of criminal law. The discussion begins with theft, a crime which is currently defined by the 1968 Theft Act, and offences relating to vehicle theft. Theft’s scope has not only been determined by its statutory definition, however. A series of important cases have also decided that theft can occur with the property owner’s consent, a principle that conflicts with the definition of fraud, the next criminal offence to be discussed in the chapter. Next, the chapter considers the statutory definition of burglary in the 1968 Theft Act, and subsequent case law. Following discussion of criminal damage’s scope under the Criminal Damage Act 1971, the law section of the chapter considers the legal definition of robbery and the wide scope of this offence. In the criminal justice section of the chapter, each of these offences is analysed from a criminal justice angle in terms of what is known about incidence, prosecution, victimisation, and sentencing for each offence, before a conclusion linking back to Chapter 1’s roadmap theories.
