By Milica D. Djekic
The criminal justice case could include a broad spectrum of details getting the need to be deeply explored and investigated by the case management team and the other officers. The offense activities are not only limited to the crime scene and they can get delivered, shared and transferred domestically, regionally or in the transnational manner. In this effort, we would analyze the common criminal justice scheme being the theft that can be committed in the frequent places normally targeting the victims who would do the stoppage or just slow down with their moving. The thieves could operate in any public area independently or as a group and as it’s so hard to imagine the thief working without any communications or logistics on even being somehow apart from his zone – it’s clear that such an offender could belong to the criminal group that would conduct the joint offense operation, so far. Through this article, we intend to introduce the terms Offense-as-a-Teaming (OaaT) and Crime-as-a-Teaming (CaaT) as well as explain how some sort of criminality could pull in a number of the criminal justice offenders in order to commit the offense together. In no case, the discussed crime as the theft is would not mean any kind of organized crime activity, but it also can invoke several criminals on the spot and some of them in the background. The offense activities being conducted on the crime scene and wider could include sharing of goods, money, communications and logistics resources being from the vital significance in doing the criminal or another offense. In other words, all offense activities should get studied carefully and step-by-step as the entire crime scene could appear as the quite complex and dynamic environment providing a plenty of details and actions. For instance, taking the money from the victim and giving it to the co-offender is the crime scene activity being shared through the criminal justice case. The OaaT and CaaT are the terms that would cover on the events occurring through committing the offense on the spot and those phrases would be explained through this effort the later on. The theft by itself could cope with the connotation of the less serious crime and even if it would look like it can get understanded through some kind of the regular models, the situation in the practice is far more complicated. The main reasons for so are the theft can happen anywhere in the public and sometimes it’s quite challenging providing the accurate and timing information about where, when and how such an offense occurred. In other words, it’s up to the investigators to resolve such a complaint and document the entire criminal justice scheme in order to give some effort to the future crime prevention on. Next, it could be so important to deal with the comprehensive crime scene modeling and management in order to deeply understand the entire event and all its actors. The communications linkage is the best way to diagnose the entire case and figure out how many offenders have been engaged into the entire crime scheme. Through this contribution, we would want to stress out the standard criminal justice scenarios regarding the theft offense as well as make some starting points how such a crime could get resolved completely and in details following the procedures as well as the best practice being well-developed within any competitive law enforcement agency and the overall case management groups.
Introduction
The purpose of this review is to give some ideas and perspectives to the law enforcement officers doing the investigation how well they could investigate the usual crime as the theft is. Normally, the thieves would choose the overcrowded spots such as the downtowns, public transportation and trading spots for a reason those would be the areas of the people getting with themselves the money, jewelry and credit cards. The persons in the busy places would be in the rush and the offenders would know so as they would be present on the spot and monitor any single move happening there. Their experience would teach them that it’s quite unsafe getting anything from anyone being in the fast walk. Also, anyone being in strength could resist if he figures out someone is putting his fingers into his pocket. Those are so challenging to the thieves, so they would put an eye on everyone and patiently wait for their target to stop or even slow down as they could conduct their operation on. Apparently, if someone is in the shape and moving quickly the offender may attempt the offense, but there are the realistic chances that he would miss to grab the catch or he would anyhow get into trouble if the targeting person makes a decision to strike back. So, the skillful thieves would select to attack once someone has stopped or slowed down doing, say, taking on the bus through the peak hour. In such a time, the frequency of the people in the public is quite high and the persons waiting on the bus doors to take on must slow down and that’s so convenient moment to attack that person from his back. It cannot be guaranteed that the thief would get any catch in every single attempt, but sometimes the people using the public transportation could get something valuable with themselves. On the other hand, when we take into consideration the public spot as the shopping center is it’s obvious that the people in shopping need to slow down when they do some payment, pack their bags or transfer the goods from their carriage into their cars. The common sense would suggest to the thief that’s the perfect moment to attack and in such a case his chances to get the good catch could only increase. The similar situation is in any downtown as there are a lot of people getting concentrated in the small area and the offender would commonly circulate through that spot. In other words, no thief once in action would be on rest unless his victim from the crowd would stop for a moment to check out something and when the incident occurs the criminal would not remain close to that place, but he would continue moving trying to leave the crime scene, so far.
Someone being good in the theft business would have the skill to steal anything from anyone not even getting noticed to do so. The public spots could offer a heap of places for sitting or remaining aside in any fashion and the experienced thieves would use such an advantage to stay less obvious and do the good observation of such a terrain. So, if they notice anyone walking slowly or taking a break they would simply attack and if their estimation got accurate they would be satisfied with what they obtained through that illegal activity. The reason why the thieves would operate as a team is that they would get the better control of their zone and they would cover on each other in a much more secure way. Also, the thieves could rely on the strong logistics in order to escape from the crime scene. For instance, the theft teams could use any kind of traffic systems in order to commit the crime or leave the place with some catch. The experienced Police officers could easily recognize the criminal behavior and the offenders would be aware of that, so they would use the new tactics and techniques in order to remain less obvious. One of the well-known tactics of staying less obvious is taking care about the appearance and the overall outfit. For example, the intelligently chosen cloths could make anyone getting the part of the environment. In addition, there are some standard behavioral and habit models that could suggest the suspicious activities. The law enforcement officers have the task to provide the certain level of safety and security to the community and for such a reason it’s necessary to study the ongoing tendencies as such a method could be the best way to prevent and respond to the crime. In other words, if it’s well-known that the theft offense could happen in the crowded areas it’s requiring to monitor those spots from time to time. The role of the law enforcement is to remove the crime from the street in the same time providing the relatively safe working conditions to their workforce. That’s quite difficult to obtain, so that’s why it’s needed to think smart in order to assure everyone including the members of the public from being attacked or harmed, so far.
The main question to the thieves in the public is how to remain less visible to the common people or the authorities patrolling on. So, the concern to any thief is how to steal something from someone in so skillful and secret manner not dragging a lot of attention from the victim’s surrounding. The fact is the thieves would choose to attack the weak, old and slowing down community members as they would not notice such an offense at that certain moment or they would not get capable to resist if they even get anything about such a crime. The towns, cities and other populated areas are well known for their rush, fast pace and overcrowding, so the victims in there could get just captured by the local criminal groups and left in the shock sometimes being injured or hurt by the offenders. The most reliable way to the offender to attack and take something from his victim is the moment when that person is on the stoppage or slowing down. That may happen when the person is making cell phone calls, doing texting in the public or using the phone cabins on the street. In such a situation, the potential victim is less aware about what is going on and the experienced street criminal would know how to take advantage over such an occurrence. The point is the thieves are not scared from the street and they can spend the hours outside waiting for the right moment to attack. The practice would show they can use some of their camouflage tactics in order to remain less obvious and in such a sense it’s not surprising that they could pretend they are taking the break somewhere or doing anything being so common to that busy spot. The good criminologists would deeply study and understand the psychology of these street predators and they would know that the offenders could count on one or more accommodations in so convenient areas of the populated place which would serve them to take a rest, get some food and drink or change the cloths. In other words, once on the crime scene the offenders could demonstrate the confidence about what they do and the seriously heavy cases would not show the fear even if they see the Police on the spot. They have the strong nerves and in any situation they can find the way to leave that site so calmly. The best method to hide in some environment is to be the part of that surrounding and if the criminal can change his appearance depending where he is at that certain time, he would definitely win the battle over the authorities as well as the victim of the criminal offense. It may seem that sending the patrolling car or the officers on the feet could be the good preventive measure for the theft criminalities. In our opinion, that methodology could make less confident criminals hesitate, but the experienced street beasts would continue doing what they normally do. The theft can bring the good profit and no one would willingly give up from so. There are relatively safe places in the world, but the majority of cities anywhere across the globe could cope with some kind of violence if the authorities make a decision to attempt such an aggressive approach. So, if there is the need to prevent the theft in the public, the smart game should get played against those troubling individuals and further through this effort we would explain what the best techniques to avoid some of the false positives are.
The theft as a crime is well-studied through the practice and anyone coping with that sort of offense is aware how hard it can be to combat the criminal groups committing such a criminality. In our understanding, it’s about the joint offense and in other words, it’s difficult to imagine the lone wolf thief. The places being so attractive tourist destinations are so suitable spots for doing the theft and the experienced offenders would just monitor on the internationals not belonging to the local community how they would deal with the unknown environment. The offenders would be well-familiar with any single part of that area, while the tourists would not even know the basic orientation amongst that surrounding. They would usually rely on the maps or another navigation system – commonly stopping and asking for the information, so in other words, they would be more than obvious to the local criminal groups as someone coming from aboard. The people on the journey are relaxed and they would spend a plenty of time doing sightseeing or taking the photos and recordings not paying any attention on what is happening around them. Also, there would be so many opportunities to buy so lovely souvenirs to the family members and friends and the tourists would enjoy doing so. In addition, the local thieves would be so confident about their zone, while the people coming from the other places would know nothing or just a bit about such a territory. Also, there is the realistic chance that some of the less serious thefts would never get reported to the local authorities for a reason the tourists would simply give up from the complaint for not knowing anything about the local Police. Many would not cope with the local language, so they could get scared to even attempt anything. The most important stuffs such as the passports and the travelling tickets could get left in the hotel rooms, while the objects like cameras, money and credit cards could go on excursion with the visitors. Practically, those things are under the threat and the thieves would carefully choose to commit the crime that would never get reported to the law enforcement agencies. Sometimes the people could get unconfident if the object got stolen or just missed somewhere. Stealing the credit card to anyone who would enjoy the excursion could be the risk, but that risk can bring the good profit on. Differently saying, the street predators could concentrate to get something valuable as jewelry, watches, video cameras, some money or anything else not being under the focus for a reason of enjoying so beautiful time in some world’s famous environment, so far.
On the other hand, the thieves would develop the strong need of being active and always on the move in order to avoid the criminal justice. Their victims could be the both – domestic or international people and in the big places the majority of sightseeing spots would normally be overcrowded with the visitors and the offenders would circulate there looking for someone being so free and unaware of the dangers of the unknown environment. Those streets predators would so deeply cope with the psychology of their victims and they would literally flawlessly estimate the right moment to attack. In our belief, the theft is the joint offense and it can occur under the certain circumstances which should get studied by the skillful criminologists who are capable to analyze those tendencies. The challenge plus is that so many those offenses would never get reported to the Police, so the authorities would stay without any information about such a criminal offense. At the very beginning of this article, we would introduce two terms being Offense-as-a-Teaming and Crime-as-a-Teaming, so it’s important to provide a bit more suggestions about those phrases. The Offense-as-a-Teaming (OaaT) is any act of violation or criminality that includes more than one actor to get committed on. That offense could be recognized as a joint effort to break the law or another legal regulation, so far. The similar case is with the Crime-as-a-Teaming (CaaT) indicating on something being fully criminal and conducted as the joint activity. Apparently, through this effort we
would discuss the possibilities of tackling the theft as an offense in the community coping with some preventive as well as diagnostics measures. The fact is that form of criminality could get challenged invoking the patrolling forces, but that step could be quite counter-productive for a reason it could cause some kind of the street violence. The greatest weakness of anyone committing the OaaT or CaaT is his dependability on the team that is connected using the communications technologies. In other words, if we try to develop the intelligent methodologies how to model and control the crime scene relying on cyber networks, we could count on the adequate response to such illegal activities that would, consequently, get better prevented on.
The need of reliable communications
The OaaT and CaaT would get the teaming in common suggesting it’s about the joint activity that would rely on the team as the lawbreaking unit. The biggest challenge to such a group is how to operate in the public maintaining the touch with each other. Those offenders would count on each other and so frequently need each other to get covered and protected. Basically, there is no the true trust between the criminals as they would only deal with some rules being typical to their environment. The point is those individuals would need to manage their communications as well as information exchange somehow, so as anyone else they would develop some sort of the dependability on the emerging technologies. It would appear that with the discoveries of the first modern communications systems the history would happen faster than ever and the entire human kind would begin living at the extremely prompt pace. The similar situation is with the criminal environment that would exchange the findings in the sub-second period of time. In other words, as anyone else the criminals would get dependable on cyber solutions. To remind, the cyber is anything being correlated with the internet, computers and mobile systems and at this stage of our development that’s something being available in so commercial fashion. In other words, the offenders committing the theft are also in the need for the reliable communications, so they would commonly apply the cell phones, mobile devices, internet connectivity and satellite communications in order to maintain the contact with each other. Once they are on their terrain looking for committing the crime, they would talk to each other using the current communications solutions. Practically, that’s the great trap to them for a reason that’s how they would leave the trace in the cyberspace and get more approachable to the authorities. To be honest, there is no silver bullet in any field of the interest, so the similar case is with the criminology. Apparently, no approach can give the instant results and resolve literally everything, so far. Right here, what we can do is to make some suggestions how some basic theft cases could get handled using the policing procedures, policies and best practices.
On the other hand, it’s significant to figure out how the theft crime appears as well as realize that any offender doing so would carry on with himself the communications device that would send and receive some electricity signal on. The Police can catch that electricity activity using so professional equipment and that’s how the offenders could be discovered. The problem is someone being the victim of the theft would not necessarily get aware when the crime occurred, so the authorities would only deal with the complaint that something got stolen – but they would not know how and when. In other words, the Police members at the first stage could deal with the quite wide crime scene that should get searched somehow. In this paper, we would mention some tips and guidelines on how the investigation regarding the theft offense could get run and conducted, but as we said such an approach is not necessary the winning one in the practice. As we said, the tendency would show that the thieves would choose to attack when the victim is doing stoppage or slowing down, so once the investigative team has obtained the inspection of the crime scene and started looking in the cyberspace for more clues – they can firstly try to capture those moments of the victims cell phone signal when he stopped or slowed down. In any such an occurrence, it’s so important to look for the closest electronics devices because some of them could belong to the thief and if that method provides some outcomes regarding the criminal offender identification the entire team doing that offense could get diagnosticated and put under the case. It’s quite obvious that this tactic could offer some results in the investigation, but it is not fully comprehensive and straightforward as it needs a lot of hard work and smart thinking in order to get advantaging to the investigators. Practically, it’s possible to discover the entire criminal group following such a suggestion, but it’s not absolutely guaranteed that the certain case would get resolved coping with such a strategy only. In other words, the victim of theft would report about the abuse and the investigation should cope with the most common tactics in order to tackle the case and discover who has committed the crime, so for such a purpose it’s important to look for the track in the cyberspace, so far.
The most common way for offenders to exchange the information on the crime scene or wider is using the GSM, GPRS, GPS and TCP/IP communications and navigation channels. The simple Smartphone being the mobile device has the capacity to offer such a broad spectrum of services, so the forensic detectives should look for the very first track right there. In the practice, maybe some theft crime scene would get investigated and reconstructed so deeply, but it’s also important to take into the consideration the fact the theft teams would not only steal the money, but commonly some of the valuable objects. For instance, if anyone’s laptop, credit card or camera has been stolen on the spot, it’s clear that the criminals would not take with themselves those stuffs and keep them in their accommodation – but they would rather find the ways to make advantage over such a stolen good. In other words, the street predators are usually connected with the entire black market and our suggestion how the entire criminal ring could get tracked in the cyberspace has its arguments even in such a case. So, what is so crucially needed in responding to such a challenging offense or the group of offenses is the skill in both – physical and high-tech domain, so if the needed procedures and policies are not yet developed – the law enforcement agencies should work hard to do so effectively and in such a manner tackle and understand that complex landscape.
The common logistics schemes
It’s quite interesting to imagine how it works when the theft is occurring on the crime scene and the offenders are trying to rely on some logistics support. Apparently, the theft can be committed in both – public spot and public transportation and in the both cases the offenders should cope with the good tactics how to avoid any sort of complications on the crime scene. If the crime is happening amongst some busy place, it’s so obvious that there could be some private vehicles within the parking areas that can serve as the suitable logistics backup. In other words, the offenders need to appear and escape from the crime scene, so for such a purpose they would use either the private vehicles with someone sitting in there and waiting for them or they would take advantage over the public transportation network. In the both cases, the risk is more or less the similar. The well-known scheme is that someone being in the logistics as a backup could apply cyber technologies and track the route of the offender on some mobile device map trying to get the most appropriate moment to come and pick up the criminal from the crime scene. The common scenario is that the thieves could have some accommodation in some area of the town and they can use that place to take a rest or do some of the basic human needs, so far. That accommodation could get recognized as their nest that can serve to get prepared for the offense, make the plan about the crime and keep some of the stolen good before it gets sold on the black market. In addition, the logistics could also rely on cyber technologies in sense of monitoring, tracking and navigation the criminals on the spot usually doing so from the background. The experience would suggest that the thieves are not necessary in the same zone during the day, but they are rather shifting from one area to another. That could be the good camouflage scenario and the intelligent tactic to avoid the law enforcement officers. In any sense, the theft as a crime could be the quite huge challenge and the source of the competitive profit that could make the community members being unsafe and the entire society suffering the drawback in case of the inadequate response to such a scheme.
The ways of escaping from crime scene
In the practice, the offenders could stay close to the crime scene once they commit the crime or they can try to escape either immediately or with some time delay. If the crime is happening in the downtown, it’s possible the offenders would cope with the secret spots to hide and if the seizure occurs they can either chose to hide in the public or escape from the crime scene so promptly using their own vehicles or the public logistics. The Police patrolling is always close to any neighborhood and once someone reports that something has been stolen from him the officers would come to make the inspection. In the criminology, the theft is considered as the less serious crime, but the fact is it should not get observed like so as it brings the good incomes to anyone being in such a business. In other words, it’s important to cope with such a crime tendency and make the well-studied reports that could support any Police Department to understand, tackle and respond to such a concern, so far.
Discussions & Conclusions
Investigating the theft is not the easy task and the entire investigation should cope with the well-developed procedures and evidence collecting as the ultimate goals in the case management. Also, it’s needed to understand the psychology of the offender as well as the victim in order to recognize some of the trends going on at the street. Everything must be according to the law and the investigation is updated hour by hour in order to keep its course and choose the new methods and tactics in gaining the findings and clues, so far. The investigators being relevant to those cases could through the experience demonstrate the high level of proficiency in the criminal justice investigation as well as show some of the innovative approaches to their tasks. Finally, there are some suggestions and guidelines how that sort of the crime could get resolved, but it’s needed to follow the entire social and cultural trends, so far.
About The Author
Milica D. Djekic is an Independent Researcher from Subotica, the Republic of Serbia. She received her engineering background from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Belgrade. She writes for some domestic and overseas presses and she is also the author of the book “The Internet of Things: Concept, Applications and Security” and “The Insider’s Threats: Operational, Tactical and Strategic Perspective“ being published in 2017 and 2021 respectively with the Lambert Academic Publishing. Milica is also a speaker with the BrightTALK expert’s channel. She is the member of an ASIS International since 2017 and contributor to the Australian Cyber Security Magazine since 2018. Milica’s research efforts are recognized with Computer Emergency Response Team for the European Union (CERT-EU), Censys Press, BU-CERT UK and EASA European Centre for Cybersecurity in Aviation (ECCSA). Her fields of interests are cyber defense, technology and business. Milica is a person with disability.