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Racket (crime)
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to an organized criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket. However, racketeers may offer an ostensibly effectual service to solve an existing problem. The traditional and historically most common example of such a racket is the "protection racket", in which racketeers offer to protect a business from robbery or vandalism; however, the racketeers will themselves coerce or threaten the business into accepting this service, often with the threat (implicit or otherwise) that failure to acquire the offered services will lead t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organized Crime
Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a form of illegal business, some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, rebel forces, and separatists, are politically motivated. Many criminal organizations rely on fear or terror to achieve their goals or aims as well as to maintain control within the organization and may adopt tactics commonly used by authoritarian regimes to maintain power. Some forms of organized crime simply exist to cater towards demand of illegal goods in a state or to facilitate trade of goods and services that may have been banned by a state (such as illegal drugs or firearms). Sometimes, criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection". Street gangs may ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Money Laundering
Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions. It is usually a key operation of organized crime. In US law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. In UK law the common law definition is wider. The act is defined as "taking any action with property of any form which is either wholly or in part the proceeds of a crime that will disguise the fact that that property is the proceeds of a crime or obscure the beneficial ownership of said property". In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Offic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organized Retail Crime
Organized retail crime (ORC) refers to professional shoplifting, cargo theft, retail crime rings and other organized crime occurring in retail environments. One person acting alone is not considered an example of organized retail crime. These criminals move from store to store and even city to city. Working in teams, some create distractions while others steal everything from infant formula to DVDs. Often, they are stocking up on specified items at the request of the organized crime leader. According to Brian J. Nadeau, former program manager of the FBI's Organized Retail Theft Program, “These aren’t shoplifters taking a pack of gum. These are professional thieves.” The FBI has estimated that the losses attributed to organized retail crime could reach as much as $30 billion a year.” In the UK, respondents to the British Retail Consortium's annual crime survey for the financial year 2013-2014 estimated that organized retail crime accounted for 40% of all shop the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art Theft
Art theft, sometimes called artnapping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to secure loans. Only a small percentage of stolen art is recovered—an estimated 10%. Many nations operate police squads to investigate art theft and illegal trade in stolen art and antiquities. Some famous art theft cases include the robbery of the ''Mona Lisa'' from the Louvre in 1911 by employee Vincenzo Peruggia. Another was theft of ''The Scream'', stolen from the Munch Museum in 2004, but recovered in 2006. The largest-value art theft occurred at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, when 13 works, worth a combined $500 million were stolen in 1990. The case remains unsolved. Individual theft Many thieves are motivated by the fact that valuable art pieces are worth millions of dollars and weigh only a few kilograms at most. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bank Robbery
Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank branch or teller, as opposed to other bank-owned property, such as a train, armored car, or (historically) stagecoach. It is a federal crime in the United States. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence or by putting the victim in fear." By contrast, burglary is "unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft." Overview Places Bank robbery occurs in cities and towns. This concentration is often attributed to there being more branches in urban areas, but the number of bank robberies is higher than the number of branches. This has advantages both for bank robbers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armed Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear; that is, it is a larceny or theft accomplished by an assault. Precise definitions of the offence may vary between jurisdictions. Robbery is differentiated from other forms of theft (such as burglary, shoplifting, pickpocketing, or car theft) by its inherently violent nature (a violent crime); whereas many lesser forms of theft are punished as misdemeanors, robbery is always a felony in jurisdictions that distinguish between the two. Under English law, most forms of theft are triable either way, whereas robbery is triable only on indictment. The word "rob" came via French from Late Latin words (e.g., ''deraubare'') of Germanic origin, from Common Germanic ''raub'' "theft". Among the types o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Train Robbery
Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains. History Train robberies were more common in the past when trains were slower, and often occurred in the American Old West. Trains carrying payroll shipments were a major target. These shipments would be guarded by an expressman whose duty was to protect the cargo of the " express car". Bandits would rely on the expressman to open the safe and provide the goods. Without the combination lock information, it was almost impossible to break into the safes. However, the invention of dynamite made it much easier to break into safes and rob the train. If the outlaw was unsatisfied with the goods, unarmed passengers of the train's carriages are held at gunpoint and forced to hand over valuables, usually in the form of jewelry or currency. Contrary to the method romanticized by Hollywood, outlaws were never known to jump from horseback onto a moving train. Usually, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metal Theft
Metal theft is "the theft of items for the value of their constituent metals". It usually increases when worldwide prices for scrap metal rise, as has happened dramatically due to rapid industrialization in India and China. Apart from precious metals like gold and silver, the metals most commonly stolen are non-ferrous metals such as copper, aluminium, brass, and bronze. However, even cast iron and steel are seeing higher rates of theft due to increased scrap metal prices. One defining characteristic of metal theft is the motivation. Whereas other items are generally stolen for their extrinsic value, items involved in metal theft are stolen for their intrinsic value as raw material or commodities. Thefts often have negative consequences much greater than the value of the metal stolen, such as the destruction of valuable statues, power interruptions, and the disruption of railway traffic. Items often stolen Anything made of metal has value as scrap metal, and can be stolen: * Man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gasoline Theft
Gasoline theft occurs when gasoline is stolen from a gas station, pipeline or vehicle. From vehicle tanks People can siphon fuel from fuel tanks or use special devices to remove gasoline from the fuel tank. Fuel theft has shown to amount to as high as $2.1 billion a year in the United States of America. Vehicle tracking systems are sometimes used by companies to monitor cases of fuel theft and to raise effectiveness of commercial fleet fuel usage. From filling stations Gasoline theft (sometimes known colloquially as fill and fly, gas and dash, and drive-off in the US and bilking in the UK) is the removal of gasoline from a station without payment. The thief will usually use some form of decoy to prevent nearby witnesses from noticing the lack of payment until they have left the station. Common decoys include pretending to press the wrong buttons after the credit card are swiped or having multiple people get gas at the same time, with one paying for another person and the oth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Home Invasion
A home invasion, also called a hot prowl burglary, is a sub-type of burglary (or in some jurisdictions, a separately defined crime) in which an offender unlawfully enters into a building residence while the occupants are inside. The overarching intent of a hot prowl burglary can be theft, robbery, assault, sexual assault, murder, kidnapping, or another crime, either by stealth or direct force.Byron, Reginald; Molidor, William; Cantu, Andrew (2018). "US Newspapers' Portrayals of Home Invasion Crime". The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice. 57(2): 250-277. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hojo.12257 Hot prowl burglaries are considered especially dangerous by law enforcement because of the potential for a violent confrontation between the occupant and the offender. Historiography The first published use of the term "home invasion" recorded in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is an article in ''The Washington Post'' on 1 February 1912, with an article in the ''L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smash And Grab
A smash and grab is a particular form of burglary or looting that involves smashing a barrier, usually a display window in a shop or a showcase, grabbing valuables, and then making a quick getaway, without concern for setting off alarms or creating noise. Typically, display windows and showcases that are in enclosed areas, such as shopping malls and office buildings, are less vulnerable to smash and grab raids than those on open streets – particularly where the streets are poorly lit or unobserved (such as premises in pedestrian subways or unstaffed transport facilities). Recent smash and grab crimes have also involved ramming a pickup truck through the walls of a convenience store or gas station in order to remove the ATM from the premises and recover the cash. Smash and grab raids can occur in many scenarios, both in broad daylight and at night, and the perpetrators can range from experienced thieves to impulsive vandals. The greatest cost of smash and grab raids can often ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burglary
Burglary, also called breaking and entering and sometimes housebreaking, is the act of entering a building or other areas without permission, with the intention of committing a criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, robbery or murder, but most jurisdictions include others within the ambit of burglary. To commit burglary is to ''burgle'', a term back-formed from the word ''burglar'', or to ''burglarize''. Etymology Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) explains at the start of Chapter 14 in the third part of ''Institutes of the Lawes of England'' (pub. 1644), that the word ''Burglar'' ("''or the person that committeth burglary''"), is derived from the words ''burgh'' and ''laron'', meaning ''house-thieves''. A note indicates he relies on the ''Brooke's case'' for this definition. According to one textbook, the etymology originates from Anglo-Saxon or Old English, one of the Germanic languages. (Perhaps paraphrasing Sir Edward Coke:) "The word ''burglar'' comes from the two Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
