Larceny and Abduction: an Analysis of How Theft is Developing at a Dangerous Rate

Larceny and Abduction: an Analysis of How Theft is Developing at a Dangerous Rate

Theft has been a major issue since the beginning of interactions among different groups of people. Starting from simple items like food, clothes, and other necessary products, the act of stealing evolved on a vicious scale. In no time, people began to linger for more valuable merchandise, leading to the capture of the ultimate prize, humans. With the support of many other works, this paper will show how robbery and theft has evolved into the monstrosity it is today, and will prove how larceny and abductions today are far more malicious than past acts of them. Reasons for rise in theft throughout the world can sometimes be misunderstood and be assumed much worse than they are. Many individuals believe in the fact that people, as a whole, are just given worse intentions in day to day life. This could be true, on a small scale, and account for a small portion of the theft we see. But in reality, there are numerous other factors contributing to the issue including increased coverage in the news, entertainment and media productions, and high levels of urbanization. Each of the mentioned elements will be examined throughout the duration of the paper, in attempt to prove not only how, but why robbery and theft have increased into such ongoing and typical problems.
Journalism has and always will be a huge contributor in todays fast moving world since it is constantly keeping everybody up to date. But sometimes, the news can be viewed as an information gathering source for a criminal attempting to learn more about committing a certain crime. All criminals lack intelligence for committing a crime in the first place, but surely a well devised plan will include intensive research through past similar crimes. This type of information could be derived from news archives, as well as current events. One story in particular was about an article in which had extremely revealing information on building pipe bombs. A Newsday editor where the article was first produced, Paul Walsh, said, “When the story came to me for editing, I was concerned about the specific `ingredients' and `directions' listed. My supervisor, Bill Higgins, suggested and I agreed to take out a sentence about laying out a blueprint for how to make a pipe bomb" (Gelfand). Since this information was actually posted into the newspaper, I found it extremely startling, and the fact that the news editor had to remove another line before publishing it makes one question how much information this author was trying to feed to a potential terrorist. Bill Maddy, an everyday reader of the Newsday paper, also commented, “..the composition of the pipe bombs had no redeeming value because it could only be helpful to someone with unlawful intentions” (Gelfand). Since this second option about the pipe bomb story was provided in this article, it helped greatly to solidify how inappropriate this type of topic really is. Especially with the public being very sensitive, newspapers need to be cautious in the upcoming years in order to keep their readers reading. Continuation in crime oriented articles, ones with revealing details of an operation in particular, while readers have little to no discretion will lead to some readers using the information in order to commit unlawful actions. Newspapers and journals are not to be viewed as the only type of media in which show and suggest forms of criminal activity. Movies, no matter what genre, can easily put ideas of robbery into the heads of individuals with them hardly even knowing. The classic act of grand larceny, in reality as well as movies, is that of robbing a bank. In August of 2003, a man by the name of Brian Douglas Wells told authorities someone had forced him to rob a bank. He told officers a bomb was attached to him, but he died when it exploded before the bomb squad could get there. (Bank) The man was actually, in fact, in on the plan but the other accomplices ended up lying to him and trying to get him to do the dangerous parts while they could make out with the cash. This entire event was made into a movie in 2011 entitled 30 Minutes or Less, which received a large amount of controversy. Issues individuals had with the film were mainly under two different categories, either they were the family, or felt bad for the family, of Wells, or they were scared of another copycat scenario where the robbery may actually work out for the criminals. Being a plausible assumption of what could happen in reaction to the movie, it must be realized that this is only one of numerous films showing illegal acts. As said previously, without a strong viewer discretion and guidance, the minds of the audience can quickly become engulfed with ideas of terrible intentions. In this era of technology, news ways of gaining knowledge and being entertained are always being introduced to the world. One of the most popular hobbies, for many years now, among teenagers and young adults are video games. They can keep you busy on a boring day, give you insight on life, let you lead a healthy lifestyle, and in some cases, allow you to act in criminalistic ways that would not be allowed outside of the television. Nate Garrelts, an assistant professor at Saginaw Valley University and editor of Digital Gameplay, wrote upon the game series Grand Theft Auto. In this, Garrelts wrote, “the hysterical reactions of political and other authorities to the game suggests a terror that this carnival exceeds its boundaries, that its subversion is real, and will drag the world outside the game into carnivalesque chaos” (Garrelts 89). By saying this, he means that the realism of the game can begin to leak into the minds of its players, making them begin to act out the game in real life. Although many politicians and authorities disagree with the production of the game, as stated by Garrelts, the game is much too popular to be terminated. Also, since no direct evidence can show that the video game resulted in death and destruction in real life, no reason can be given to end it. In addition, the use of the words “carnivalesque chaos,” suggests a very bittersweet type tone of what the outcome could be. As violent video games continue to be produced, problems will always arise with various people, but with censorship laws as there are today, it is doubtful that any real courses of actions to remove them will take place. Lastly, an important factor when evaluating theft and robbery in a region is the rate of urbanization. This can be defined as the growth and development of cities by the movement of rural originated peoples into the city itself. In The Hindu, a newspaper located in India, an article was written on increases in crime among the young people of the city Bangalore. The author stated, “While various factors have been contributing to the rise in crime by juveniles, the police mainly attribute the worrying trend to the rapid urbanization and hectic economic activity Bangalore has witnessed in the past few years” (Subramanya). This has been occurring because the financial ranking of rural families moving into the city are very minimal compared to those who already live in the city. With such a difference in monetary income, many of the juveniles find it easier to steal things they desire. The same correlation between theft and urbanization can be seen worldwide, usually on a smaller scale, because law enforcement tends to be more strict in other regions around the globe. Regardless, the trend will most likely continue until the city has grown socially and economically. The form of theft that is, no doubt, the most drastic and harmful of all is human abduction. Families and individuals of even the strongest and wealthiest backgrounds, that have fallen victim to these of acts robbery, can be found in shambles attempting to recover the missing member of their group. Kidnapping is truly a whole new level of seriousness since a persons life, and sometimes multiple lives, are at stake. Throughout the next few pages, different types of cases of abduction will be discussed including long-term, ransom, and mass kidnappings. All types of cases within kidnapping have different factors of how the capturer goes about treating the victim, and dealing with the authorities, as well as families and friends, of the victim. In the case of Jaycee Dugard, she had gone missing without a trace and zero contact was had between her (and her little sister whole was also taken) and anyone from the outside world. In her memoir, Dugard says, “I tell myself I should start counting days because when I am rescued I will need to be able to know how long I have been in this room. I have no way of keeping track of the days... I try to keep track of days by how many times the sun sets, but I fall asleep so easily and sometimes when I wake it is dark already” (Dugard 29). Little did Dugard know, at the time, that she would be held captive for slightly over eighteen years of her life. Phillip Garrido, the capturer of Dugard, was sentenced to a four hundred and thirty one year prison term, as result to the kidnapping. This type of long-term abduction had not been seen in history before this case, making it extremely important to show how severe a kidnapping can become. As the idea of kidnapping progressed through history, people began to gain new ideas about holding ransoming for the victim, attempting to make the family pay. The first case of this was in March of 1909, and the victim was eight year old Willie Whitla of Sharon, P.A. The boy was “released from school to the custody of a man claiming he had been sent from the boy’s father. A few hours later, a letter was received by the Whitlas for $10,000 ransom. The letter closed with the phrase: “Dead boys are not desirable.”” (Alix 26). Being the first of its kind, authorities did not know hot to react to such a situation. Instantly, state governments began to make laws about kidnapping and many made it a felony to take a child, and even punishable by death if asked to pay ransom. After two days, the boy was returned, in exchange for the ransom money. Another two days after that led to the capture of the Bogles, the kidnappers of Whitla. With this new sort of abduction, other criminals were sure to follow the same plan in order to make money as well. In March of 1932, twenty month old Charles Lindbergh Jr. was stolen from his nursery window. This led to the ransom of $50,000 to be asked of Charles Lindbergh Sr. An article stated, “Two sections of the ladder had been used in reaching the window, one of the two sections was split or broken where it joined the other, indicating that the ladder had broken during the ascent or descent” (FBI). The desperation and necessity for the Lindbergh baby can be seen through the use of the ladder. Obviously being planned out beforehand, the kidnapper had intentions of the abduction and ransom. In the same article, the author goes on to explain how “The head was crushed, there was a hole in the skull and some of the body members were missing. The body was positively identified” (FBI). After paying the ransom of $50,000, the body of the baby was found only four miles from the site of the Lindbergh home. Being such a traumatising event, this event has made history as the successful kidnapping of a famed persons child. What individuals need to realize from this, is that cases of abductions can be seen trending in violence and ransom. With technology being as complex as it is, there is hope that soon enough some sort of guaranteed protection against this sort of acts will be made. Another form of abduction that has been seen in recent years, and even made quite famous, is mass abduction. Kony 2012 is a film that was made in order to expose African cult leader Joseph Kony. This man is known for the kidnapping of young children and making them into militia style soliders. Jason Russell, director of Kony 2012, said, “ If my son were kidnapped and forced to kill, it would be all over the news. So we are making Kony world news by redefining the propaganda we see all day, every day that dictates who and what we pay attention to” (Invisible). This being the exact attempt of the film, to show what Kony does to people, let alone children, of his country. With abductions beginning at such a small scale, and now progressing to this level, who knows what the future could have in store for some countries, or possibly even the United States. When certain people take charge, and enough followers are made, widespread anarchy can take over easily and engulf the country in disorder.

Referring to even the earliest of larceny and abduction acts, none of them have been committed with positive intentions towards the victims. Although, with simple examination of these acts in modern day, one can see how much more meaningful and malicious they have become. What makes this able to view is noticing the types of benefits individuals receive including anything from millions of dollars through ransom, or close to nothing through petty theft. Either way, robbery in all aspects of life will never cease, but only gain more chaos as they develop. Without a strong effort of outside interaction and an attempt to put abduction and larceny to a stop, the issue will grow even larger to what we exhibit today.