Research Of Determination Of Larceny In The Context Of Expansion Trend

Larceny is an old but regular crime. Since its beginning, it has attracted extensiveattention. It is a kind of property crime with high rate, accounting for a largeproportion in the criminal cases trialed by people’s courts of our country annually.Being a common and regular crime which seriously affects the mass social security, ithas always been a focus of criminal policies. With the rapid social and economicdevelopment, especially after the implementation of Amendment to Criminal Law(VIII), larceny is expanding. Specifically, with regard to legislation, the condemnationmodel of larceny has transformed from the traditional one of “nature determinationand quantifying” to the parallel model of “individual nature determination of specificbehaviors” and the traditional model, which complicates the identification of larceny.Judicially, judicial explanation and adjudication break the lawmaking constantly,leading to judicial expansion. Theoretically, query about the traditional larceny theoryhas never ceased. This trend of expansion makes the controversial larceny moreundefined and debatable. Therefore, given the fact that a consensus hasn’t beenreached on the new theory and the judicial practices are not clear, investigating forlarceny is essential.Apart from the introduction and conclusion, the thesis is divided into threechapters: The first chapter is the overview about the expansion of larceny. A generalresearch of the expansion of larceny is made in this part. Specifically, the first sectiondefines relevant concepts and the main point of the thesis as well as the evolution oflarceny legislation. The second section reviews the manifestation forms of larcenyexpansion, including the expansion of theft objects and broadened definition oflarceny behaviors. The third section analyzes the causes of larceny expansion. Theauthor holds the opinion that the larceny expansion is a trend and a fickle choice aswell. It’s a product of the economic development, judicial policies, legislation modelsand other multiple factors. Legitimacy analysis has been done on the expansion trend.The second and third chapters are the core of the thesis. The expansion of objectsand behaviors of larceny is the investigation object. The second chapter focuses on theobject scope of larceny. Firstly, the first section analyzes the basic characteristics ofproperty which is the object of theft. The property should contain economic value andbe controlled by people and the property should belong to others. Then analysis anddemonstration is conducted on whether immoveable and virtual property could be theobjects of larceny. In the end, according to the summary of the nature of theft objectsin the thesis, the conclusion is drawn that the above mentioned properties can be theobjects.The third chapter takes the behaviors of larceny as the investigation focus. First,it elaborates on the debate about the nature of larceny behaviors between Secret StealTheory and Peaceful Steal Theory. Based on comparative analysis, the author putforward that under the context of Chinese Criminal Law, it’s more appropriate todefine the acquirement of property with public and peaceful means as snatch. Second,analysis and argumentation are made on how to understand and define the newlyadded theft, larceny with weapons and home-entry larceny in the Amendment toCriminal Law (VIII). The thesis aims to provide theoretical foundation and referencefor improving the larceny legislation and solving the difficulties in judicial practices.