Carjacking
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Carjacking is a crime of stealing a motor vehicle when the vehicle is occupied. Typically, the carjacker is armed, and the driver is forced out of the car with the threat of bodily injury. The word is a portmanteau of car and hijacking.
Discussion
The crime is extremely hazardous, threatening the physical safety of both the carjacker and the victim. To secure the car, the carjacker may sometimes shoot the victim or physically push/pull the victim out of the driver's seat to force him or her out of the car.
Carjackings in the world
South Africa
Carjacking is a significant problem in South Africa, where it is called hijacking; there are some roadsigns warning people that certain areas are hotspots. There were 16,000 carjackings in one year (18 times the American rate per capita), and 60 murders a year resulting from these.[citation needed]
Sweden
After being a problem in the United States some years earlier, carjackings became more common in Sweden where it most appeared in places like Gothenburg and Stockholm around 2001-2002.
United Kingdom
English law has three levels of offense under the Theft Act 1968, each pertaining to the mens rea (Latin for "guilty mind") and the degree of violence used. The least serious is TWOC, which covers any unauthorized taking of a "conveyance", s1 theft applies when the carjacker intends to permanently deprive the owner of property, and violent carjacking is an aggravated form of theft under §8 robbery.[citation needed] Amid increasing carjacking cases in the UK, there has been some discussion whether specific carjacking laws are necessary. The current view is that all aspects of the offense are covered in the law, whether as road traffic offenses, public order offenses, the use of weapons and firearms, etc., and there is no benefit in consolidating all the elements in one offense.[citation needed]
United States
In the United States, a law was passed in 1992 making carjacking a federal crime. This occurred amidst great media attention into the apparent spate of carjacking thefts, several of which resulted in homicide. One of these was the notorious September 1992 carjacking of Pam Basu in Savage, Maryland. Basu was carjacked at a stop sign in her subdivision as she left home to take her daughter to pre-school; she was entangled in her seatbelt and then dragged to death. Libertarians and states' rights activists criticized this law, arguing that the control of crime is a matter for the states, not the federal government, and asserted that carjacking was made a federal crime only to make some incumbents appear tough on crime to gain votes.[citation needed]
The United States Department of Justice estimates that in about half of all carjacking attempts, the attacker succeeds in stealing the victim's car. It estimated that, between 1987 and 1992, about 35,000 carjacking attempts took place per year, and, between 1992 and 1996, about 49,000 attempts took place per year.[citation needed]
The US state of Louisiana includes defending oneself against forcible entry of one's home and motor vehicle as part it's definition of justifiable homicide. [1][2]
History
The first known carjacking took place on the open road in March 1912. The Bonnot Gang targeted a luxury Dion Bouton in the Senart forest between Paris and Lyon, France. The armed chauffeur and young secretary in the vehicle were killed. [citation needed]
In a attempt to deal with carjacking in Louisiana, this state passed a law allowing carjackers to be killed by potential victims who are have "concealed carry permits" and are armed accordingly and/or carry guns openly, in a lawful manner, in 1997.
Carjacking in popular culture
- Video games such as Grand Theft Auto, The Godfather: The Game, Driver, Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Scarface: The World Is Yours feature carjacking as part of the gameplay which has attracted criticism from public figures.
- In The Brady Bunch Movie a carjacker attempts to take Greg's car but is unsuccessful because of the vacant naivete of Greg and Marcia Brady who with their cheerful ignorance to what is actually going on perplex the carjacker unintentionally.
- A truck hijacking scam was the subject of several episodes of the popular HBO series The Sopranos and perpetrated by Brendan Filone and Christopher Moltisanti.
- The South African movie Tsotsi features a carjacking as the main plot element.
- Larry Niven's short story "The Deadlier Weapon" features a carjacking.
- Crash is based on a real carjacking.
- In the animated series Family Guy, in the episode Road to Rupert, to get out of Aspen, Colorado Stewie and Brian carjack someone's car & drive back home.
- In the television series 7th Heaven, Matt Camden and Annie Camden have an electrical problem in their car and have to pull over. A man confronts them at gunpoint and takes Annie's wedding ring, the keys to their house, their money and car.
- In episodes 230 and 231 of the Case Closed (Detective Conan) anime and its corresponding manga files, a bus jacking occurs that involves the main characters and their calculated attempts to overthrow the hijacker and uncover their accomplice.
- In the Death Note anime, manga, and film, a busjacking is a crucial plot point. Several real busjacking incidents have taken place in Japan.
- Hijack Stories (2000 film) is a film about South African township crime, of which the main theme is carjacking. One of the main characters robs 10 cars and parks them in front of a police station.