Crimes Against Property - Assignment Example

Women carried purses of various sizes, wore outfits with long voluminous skirts, and were decked out in shawls, gloves and muffs. The social class of these offenders in the period immediately following the Civil War was mostly lower. Perpetrators were usually part of the lower class who engaged in much petty criminal behavior, of which shoplifting was just one facet. Although there is no economic theory of shoplifting, the decision to commit this crime is one that is taken rationally, weighing up the implications and advantages of this choice now and in the future.

In order to alleviate the prevalence of shoplifting, goods are often not on open display. In order for a customer to see that good which has caught their eye, the customer has to ask the attendant who will retrieve it from behind a counter or barrier of some kind. Also, most businesses have designed their retail stores to funnel all customers to and through the main exits. These changes have dramatically altered the prevalence, practice, and perception of shoplifting (Bamfield, 2012). Furthermore, in order to reduce the prevalence of shoplifting, private security officers possess authority which is a mixture of their powers as civilians and certain special requirements which were added by a special law or ordinance.

Majority of the private security officers possess only citizen powers, hence they often function as agents of their employers. These security officers are trained to protect self and property from harm (Button, 2007). As a result, a private security officer working for that business or owner has the same authority, no more-no less. The private security officers have special skills that would enable them to detect the presence of a shoplifter within the premises. In other cases, these security officers have been granted special police powers by a local, state or federal government authority.

However, even though the security officer has been granted this type of power, it is limited to the grounds and buildings of the employer. Nearly all the private security officers who work for retail stores have arrest powers for shoplifting incidents. These powers exist because the security officer is working for a shopkeeper. As part of their training, the private security officers have the right to detain a person when there are levelheaded grounds to believe that the person has shoplifted (Arrington, 2006).

Home invasion robbery differs from similar crimes, such as burglary or breaking and entering, in how the crime is defined. According to the Illinois Criminal Code, home invasion is an unlawful entering of a dwelling by a person who knows someone was present therein, and armed with a dangerous weapon either uses or threatens use of force or injures someone inside the home. In some states, this difference means that a defendant can be convicted of both home invasion and another crime, such as armed violence during residential burglary based on one unlawful entry.

On the other hand, other states hold that conviction of home invasion bars conviction of related crimes such as residential burglary based on one unlawful entry. Home invasion is often classified as a separate offense because of the brutal intent to commit various crimes such as robbery, rape, assault or murder against people in the home. Nonetheless, home invasion is not a legally defined crime federally and is only such