Burglary or Robbery?

My new course is on white collar crime. Last night we covered a lot of ground, some of it basic definitions. Burglary involves breaking into a building, but without bodily harm or the threat of bodily harm. Robbery involves stealing something through the use of bodily harm or thread of bodily harm.

So the professor tells a story. Seems when he was in college, he received a call from a female friend of his. Her apartment had been broken into while she was away. "I've been robbed" she said. The professor then said if we ever got a call like that, he advise us not to explain the difference between burglary and robbery.

Very, very dry.


Another thing. We described larceny. This is theft of an item with the intent to permanently depriving the rightful ownder of his or her property. So if someone "borrows" your car and takes it on a joy ride, it's not larceny if they don't intend to keep it forever.

Next time someone takes a car for a joy ride, I'll look at them in a different light.