A chop shop is a business, often
mimicking a
body shop
The Body Shop International Limited, trading as The Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care and perfume company.
Founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, the company currently has a range of 1,000 products sold in about 3,000 stores, divided b ...
, that illicitly disassembles
stolen motor vehicles and sells
their parts. Chop shops are often linked to car-theft rings as part of a broader
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 th ...
enterprise.
In the United States, the federal Motor Vehicle Theft Law Enforcement Act of 1984 and
Federal Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992
Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...
, as well as
U.S. Department of Transportation
The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States and ...
regulations issued under those acts, require automobile manufacturers to label many different auto components (with some exemptions for new automobiles with selected
anti-theft devices). A 1999 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Justice's
National Institute of Justice
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) is the research, development and evaluation agency of the United States Department of Justice. NIJ, along with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Juvenil ...
estimated that parts marking reduced the rate of professional car theft (with "between 33 and 158 fewer cars" being "stolen by professional thieves per 100,000 cars that were marked between 1987 and 1995"), inhibiting chop-shop operations.
See also
*
Carjacking
Carjacking is a robbery in which the item taken over is a motor vehicle.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in ''Encyclopedia of Social Problems'', Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is ...
*
Motor vehicle theft
Motor vehicle theft (also known as a car theft and, in the United States, grand theft auto) is the criminal act of stealing or attempting to steal a motor vehicle. Nationwide in the United States in 2020, there were 810,400 vehicles reporte ...
*
Pawn shop
A pawnbroker is an individual or business (pawnshop or pawn shop) that offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral. The items having been ''pawned'' to the broker are themselves called ''pledges'' or ...
References
External links
''Criminal Resource Manual'' 1369: Chop Shops(18 U.S.C. ยง 2322)
Multi-State Chop Shop Operation Disrupted - Criminal Enterprise Leader Among Those Convicted(
FBI
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
)
Organized crime activity
Motor vehicle theft
Auto parts suppliers
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