Robbery Law
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Theft by false pretenses occurs when a person obtains title to the property of another by knowingly making false representations, either spoken or written, with the intent to defraud the victim. The misrepresentation must be of present or past material fact and not opinion, prediction, or false promise. The crime also requires that the victim give the property to the defendant as a result of being deceived by or of relying upon the misrepresentation. The defendant must obtain title to the property, not mere possession without title, in order to be guilty of false pretenses. Historically, obtaining custody or possession of property (rather than title) by false statements was a form of larceny known as larceny by trick.
Robbery is a form of aggravated larceny. It can be viewed as a combination of assault or battery, plus larceny. All the elements of larceny are required-the trespassing and taking and moving of money or property from another without consent and with the intent to permanently deprive that person of the money or property-plus two additional requirements. First, there must be violence or threat of immediate violence. Second, the taking must be from the victim or in the victim's presence.
For example, it is robbery to take another's property, including money, from the victim at gunpoint or to knock the victim unconscious and then take his or her property. The property taken must be on the victim or so near the victim that, if not for the violence or threat of violence, the victim could have prevented its taking. For purposes of imposing punishment, most jurisdictions draw a distinction between simple robbery, where the victim is intimidated into handing over property, and armed (or aggravated) robbery, which is robbery with a dangerous weapon.
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A "crime" is any act or omission (of an act) in violation of a public law forbidding or commanding it. Crimes include both felonies (more serious offenses -- like murder or rape) and misdemeanors (like petty theft, or jaywalking). No act is a crime if it has not been previously established as such either by statute or common law.
Historically, most crimes have been established by state law, with laws varying significantly state to state. There is, however, a Model Penal Code (MPC) which serves as a good starting place to gain an understanding of the basic structure of criminal liability.
In recent years the list of Federal crimes has grown.
All statutes describing criminal behavior can be broken down into its various elements. Most crimes (with the exception of strict-liability crimes) consist of two elements: an act, or "actus reus" and a mental state, or "mens rea." Prosecutors have to prove each and every element of the crime to yield a conviction.Â
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