영미법에 있어 ‘Theft’ 범죄에 대한 연구

This article focuses especially on the issues "theft". There are many types of theft. Larceny was the first theft crime. All other misappropriation of property offenses stem from this ancient crime. It was created by judges as part of the common law. The elements of larceny were very narrow and did not cover most thefts. Larceny began as one crime, but developed into many different crimes. The definition of larceny left a large gap that permitted people in some circumstances to steal from others. That gap was caused by requiring a trespassory taking of the property. Unsatisfied with this situation, the English Parliament created a new crime : embezzlement. At common law, it was not larcenous to use lies (false representations) to gain ownership of property. As it had done with embezzlement, Parliament decided to make such acts criminal. It did so by creating the crime of false pretenses. Eventually, two other crimes were created, embezzlement and false pretenses. This article considers three traditional theft offenses : larceny, embezzlement and false pretenses. In recent years, many legislatures have consolidated the three crimes discussed in this article into a single offense, often denominated as "theft". The Model Penal Code contains a comprehensive consolidation of theft offenses. Provided that a defendant is not prejudiced by doing so, the specification of one theft crime by the prosecution dose not prohibit a conviction for another. So if the defendant is specifically charged with larceny, he or she may be convicted of false pretenses or embezzlement by a jury. As the result of difficulties of proof, Model Penal Code have sought to ease the prosecutor's burden by consolidating the three theft crimes(and other property crimes) into single theft offense.