The Time Cultures of Auto Thieves and Carjackers

• In Event: Poster Session 2

Abstract

Motor Vehicle Larceny (MVL) includes Motor Vehicle Theft (MVT) and carjacking and is a popular crime category with hundreds of thousands of vehicles taken each year. MVTs occur solely as property crimes, in which an offender steals an unoccupied vehicle. Carjackings are interpersonal crimes, in which an offender steals a vehicle by force or coercion. Utilizing 28 in-depth semi-structured interviews with active offenders, we identified differential motivations to engage in MVL via MVT and carjacking, tied primarily to strategic and tactical preferences. MVL is instrumental in nature, although secondary motivation includes emotional satisfaction and feelings of criminal self-efficacy. Offenders in both subtypes took vehicles to sell and earn large sums of money for survival, luxury items, and drugs. However, an important factor of the motivation was how offenders viewed time. Carjackers acted rapidly with motivation, planning, and enactment when spotting a target. Auto thieves took their time scoping out a parked vehicle to determine if witnesses were nearby. Also, carjackers often disposed of vehicles immediately, while auto thieves kept them for several days. These methods of MVL identify the existence of different time subcultures across offenders, based on individual differences as well as the tactical demands of their MVL subtypes.

Author

• Tara Rose Abrahams, Georgia State University