NCJ Number
214080
Date Published
2005
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines the stolen goods marketplace from a crime prevention perspective.
Abstract
The main focus is to describe the dynamics of the stolen goods business in order to shed light on its impact on theft and to inform prevention strategies. The author explains that buyers and sellers of stolen goods engage in a degree of complicity that is anti-social at best with regard to its impact on the perpetuation of property crime. Legal measures aimed at interrupting the demand for stolen goods are examined, which in England and Wales require a strict and narrow interpretation of whether one had knowledge or belief that the goods they purchased were stolen. Such laws do little to interrupt the demand for stolen goods due to the wide girth they provide consumers. In order to reduce theft, it is necessary to understand the stolen market dynamics. The author begins this inquiry into the stolen goods market by examining the impact of the stolen goods market on theft rates in the United Kingdom. The analysis reveals that since most thieves steal to make cash, the stolen goods market is a motivating factor for their crime. Next, the characteristics of stolen goods markets are explored which are described as small and fragmented like many other types of illegal markets. Five main types of stolen goods markets are identified: commercial fence supplies, commercial sales, residential fence supplies, network sales, and hawking. Finally, the author focuses on the market reduction approach (MRA), which is based on situational crime prevention methods that employ managerial and environmental design tactics to reduce opportunities for crime. MRA is currently in use in two locations in the United Kingdom to reduce the extent of the stolen goods market and, ultimately, to reduce acquisitive offending. Notes, references