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Date: April 25, 2024 Thu
Time: 4:14 pm
Time: 4:14 pm
Results for joyriding
2 results foundAuthor: Plecas, Darryl Title: Why the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT) Summary: Since 2003, auto theft has decreased substantially across Canada (Wallace, 2003; Dauvergne and Turner, 2010). In fact, auto theft has had the largest rate of decline in police-reported crime trends with a decrease of 17,000 auto thefts from 2008 to 2009 (Dauvergne and Turner, 2010). Still, over the past decade, British Columbia, and in particular the city of Surrey, was listed among the jurisdictions with the highest auto theft rates in the country (Wallace, 2003). Specifically, in British Columbia, approximately 40,000 vehicles were stolen in 2003, mostly from the Greater Vancouver area (IMPACT, no date b). However, between 2003 and 2009, the number of vehicles stolen in British Columbia decreased by 55%, a decrease mainly attributed to the targeting of chronic offenders, the courts awarding harsher sentences to convicted auto thieves, and more auto theft prevention tactics employed by the makers and users of motor vehicles (IMPACT, no date c ). One of the main policing strategies to prevent and respond to auto theft in British Columbia has been IMPACT, or the Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team. Specialized police auto theft investigators from municipal police departments and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) throughout the province staff the unit. Two main initiatives of relevance to this discussion are (1) the Bait Car program which uses police owned vehicles left in high theft areas as decoys to be stolen by auto thieves and (2) a specialized Enforcement team to target known auto thieves. However, even with the recent successes of police, technological advances to combat auto theft, such as the increasing installation of immobilizers, and the substantial general reductions in auto theft worldwide, there still remains the need for police and academics to understand the motivations behind auto theft and the characteristics of auto thieves. There is debate in the research literature about who commits auto theft and for what reasons. One perspective holds that auto theft in British Columbia is commonly committed by joyriding youth aged 12 to 17 years old (Fleming et al., 1994; Wallace, 2003; Fleming, Brantingham, & Brantingham, 1994). Other researchers contend that auto theft in British Columbia is overwhelmingly committed by adult males with lengthy criminal histories for the purposes of reselling or exporting the stolen cars, using the cars in the commission of another crime, or for transportation purposes (Garis et al., 2007; Zapotichny, 2003; McCormick, Plecas, & Cohen, 2008; Wallace, 2003; IMPACT, no date b). One study examining auto theft and vehicle recovery in British Columbia identified transportation as a leading cause of auto theft in the Fraser Valley (McCormick, Plecas, & Cohen, 2007). Considering this more recent academic research and the various pronouncements of law enforcement agencies throughout the province, it appears that auto theft in British Columbia is much more likely to be committed by seasoned criminals stealing vehicles for transportation or crime commission. These findings are important because auto theft rates continue to decline due to technological advances, but will eventually level off to the point that this offence is committed almost exclusively by offenders to facilitate the commission of other offences, for organized crime, or for transportation. Given this, the role of police initiatives, such as IMPACT, are extremely important in both reducing the success of seasoned or known to police auto thieves and to deter the more 'casual' auto thief. However, this assumption only holds if IMPACT has a measurable effect on the overall auto theft rate by effectively targeting chronic or prolific auto thieves. To assess these assumptions, the authors analyzed data associated to all 260 Bait Car and 450 Enforcement arrests by IMPACT between 2005 and 2008 and compared these cases to a random sample of 75 RCMP auto theft arrests in British Columbia per year over the same time period (n = 300). As demonstrated in Table 1, the demographic profiles and criminal history of auto thieves arrested by IMPACT initiatives were essentially the same as those arrested by regular police activity. Regardless of the method by which an offender was identified and arrested, the typical auto thief tended to be an adult male (approximately 80% of the time) with a lengthy criminal record (approximately 9 years). Moreover, at least half of auto thieves could be classified as repeat, if not chronic, offenders. This finding suggests that, unlike the claim of some researchers that auto theft remains the domain of young joyriders, the typical auto thief in British Columbia is an adult with a long history of diverse criminality. Details: Burnaby, BC, CAN: BC Centre for Social Responsibility and University of the Fraser Valley, Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research, 2014. 6p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 13, 2014 at: http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/ccjr/reports-and-publications/Why_IMPACT.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Canada URL: http://www.ufv.ca/media/assets/ccjr/reports-and-publications/Why_IMPACT.pdf Shelf Number: 133033 Keywords: Automobile Theft (Canada)JoyridingMotor Vehicle Theft |
Author: Rush, Michael Title: The Nature and Impact of Joy-Riding in Priorswood Summary: Public concern about joy-riding and car crime is hugely variable. In recent months, the riots in the suburbs of Paris - which involved hundreds of cars being burnt out on a nightly basis - generated widespread alarm, and prompted far-reaching debates about the links between social cohesion, social exclusion and crime. Meanwhile in communities throughout Ireland, the regular, almost nightly occurrence of young people burning 'robbed cars' in front of appreciative audiences goes, in the absence of a fatality, unreported. Once a fatality occurs the young people involved are portrayed as hyenas and pariahs amidst public uproar. Shortly afterwards, the media attention dies down and the joy-riding and car-burning returns with customary regularity as a nightly occurrence played out before local spectators. It is however a nightly occurrence which impacts in profoundly negative ways on the quality of life of entire neighbourhoods, whose residents are faced with the nocturnal public spectacle of joy-riding and who awake to the squalor of burnt-out vehicles outside their homes. It also brings the risk of serious injury and death, and absorbs huge financial resources. Details: Dublin: School of Applied Social Science and the School of Sociology, University College Dublin, 2006. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 11, 2015 at: http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/14907/1/mulcahy_joyridingthereport.pdf Year: 2006 Country: Ireland URL: http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/14907/1/mulcahy_joyridingthereport.pdf Shelf Number: 136713 Keywords: Antisocial BehaviorJoyridingNuisance Behaviors and Disorder |