Product Code Database
Carjacking is a robbery in which a motor vehicle is taken over.Michael Cherbonneau, "Carjacking," in Encyclopedia of Social Problems, Vol. 1 (SAGE, 2008: ed. Vincent N. Parrillo), pp. 110-11. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is usually in the presence and knowledge of the victim. A common crime in many places in the world, carjacking has been the subject of legislative responses, criminology studies, prevention efforts as well as being heavily dramatized in major film releases. Commercial vehicles such as trucks and armored cars containing valuable cargo are common targets of carjacking attempts. Carjacking usually involves physical violence to the victim, or using the victim as a hostage. In rare cases, carjacking may also involve sexual assault.
A study published in the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography in 2013 noted that "carjacking requires offenders to neutralize victims who are inherently mobile and who can use their vehicles as both weapons and shields." The study noted that carjackers use fear to compel compliance from victims.Bruce Jacobs, "The Manipulation of Fear in Carjacking" in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 42, Issue 5 (February 2013), pp. 523-544.
A 2008 paper by the Australian Institute of Criminology conceptualized carjackings as falling into four types based on method and motive: organized and instrumental, organized and acquisitive, opportunistic and instrumental, and opportunistic and acquisitive. An example of an organized and instrumental carjacking is a planned carjacking with a weapon to use the vehicle for ram-raiding. An example of an organized and acquisitive carjacking is a planned carjacking to sell the vehicle in a known market. An example of an opportunistic and instrumental carjacking is a carjacking without a weapon to sell "vehicle/parts with no market in mind." An example of an opportunistic and acquisitive carjacking is a carjacking without a weapon to joyride.Lisa Jane Young and Maria Borzycki, Carjacking in Australia: recording issues and future directions , Trends & Issues in Crime & Criminal Justice, No. 351, Australian Institute of Criminology, February 2008.
A 2017 qualitative study published in Justice Quarterly examined auto theft and carjacking in the context of "sanction threats" that promoted fear and influenced "crime preferences" among criminals, thereby redirecting ("channeling") criminal activity. The study showed that "auto thieves are reluctant to embrace the violence of carjacking due to concerns over sanction threat severity they attributed to carjacking—both formal (higher sentences) and informal (victim resistance and retaliation). Meanwhile, the carjackers are reticent to enact auto theft because of the more uncertain and putatively greater risk of being surprised by victims, a fear that appears to overcome the enhanced long-term formal penalty of taking a vehicle by force."Bruce A. Jacobs & Michael Cherbonneau, "Perceived Sanction Threats and Projective Risk Sensitivity: Auto Theft, Carjacking, and the Channeling Effect," Justice Quarterly (March 2017), pp. 1-32.
Police departments, security agencies, and Auto insurance have published lists of strategies for preventing and responding to carjackings. NOPD crime prevention: How to avoid being carjacked, New Orleans Police Department. Preventing Carjacking / Theft, Insurance Information Institute. Common recommendations include:
Knowledge of the location of a truck carrying valuable cargo often requires inside information, and sometimes truck drivers collude with truck carjackers to facilitate the truck carjacking. This crime is often perpetuated by organized crime operations or by career criminals, or by a collaboration between the two.Frank E. Hagan, Introduction to Criminology: Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior (6th ed.: SAGE Publications, 2008), p. 287. In particular, American Mafia has been known to orchestrate the carjacking of trucks (at locations such as Kennedy Airport in which a truck driver under Mafia influence allows carjackers to steal the truck).Carl Sifakis, The Mafia Encyclopedia (3d ed.: Facts on File: 2005), p. 195.Jay S. Albanese, Organized Crime in Our Times (6th ed. 2011: Routledge, 2015 ed.), pp. 202-03.
The carjacking issue in South Africa was depicted in the 2005 film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several new, unconventional anti-carjacking systems designed to harm the attacker were developed and marketed in South Africa, where carjacking had become endemic. Among these was the now defunct Blaster, a small flame-thrower that could be mounted to the underside of a vehicle.
Throughout 1993, articles about carjackings appeared at the rate of more than one a week in newspapers throughout the country."Carjacking Reports Increase In Area -- Police Told Of Five Incidents Over Thanksgiving Holiday." Seattle Times, Saturday, November 26, 1994 The November 29, 1992, killing of two Osceola County, Florida, men by carjackers using a stolen 9 mm pistol resulted in the first federal prosecution of a fatal carjacking.Henry Pierson Curtis, Youths Steal Guns To Steal Youths' Lives; The Gun Used In The Nation's First Federal Carjacking Case Was Bought Legally, Then Stolen, Orlando Sentinel, January 30, 1994.
There were multiple carjackers in 56% of incidents, and the carjacker or carjackers were identified as male in 93% of incidents. A weapon was used in 74% of carjacking victimization: firearms in 45%, knives in 11%, and other weapons in 18%. Victims were injured in about 32% of completed carjackings and about 17% of attempted carjackings. Serious injuries, such as gunshot or knife wounds, broken bones, or internal injuries occurred in about 9% of incidents. About 14 murders a year involved car theft, but not all of these were carjackings. Some 68% of carjackings occurred at nighttime hours (6 p.m. to 6 a.m.). Some 98% of completed carjackings and 77% of attempted carjackings were reported to police. About 44% of carjacking incidents occurred in an open area (e.g., on the street or near public transportation) while 24% occurred in parking lots or garages or near commercial places (e.g., stores, gas stations, office buildings, restaurants/bars).
According to the NCVS, from 1992 and 1996, about 49,000 completed or attempted nonfatal carjackings took place each year in the United States. The carjacking was successful in about half of the incidents. Data on fatal carjackings are not available; "about 27 homicides by strangers each year involved automobile theft," but not all of these were carjackings.Patsy Klaus, Carjackings in the United States, 1992-96, .S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, March 1999.
For several years (but no longer), the major U.S. city with the highest rates of carjacking was Detroit.Tresa Baldas, Carjackers losing grip on Detroit, but strike daily, Detroit Free Press (November 30, 2014). In 2008, Detroit had 1,231 carjackings, more than three a day. By 2013, that number had fallen to 701, but this was still the highest known number of carjackings for any major city in the country. The significant decrease in carjackings was credited to a coordinated effort by the Detroit Police Department, the FBI, and the local federal prosecutor's office. Serial carjackers were targeted for federal prosecutions and longer sentences, and in 2009 the Detroit Police Department centralized all carjacking investigations and developed a suspect profiling system. Through mid-November 2014, Detroit had 486 carjackings, down 31% from the year before, but this was still three times more than the carjackings experienced by New York City (which has ten times Detroit's population) in all of 2013. Even James Craig, chief of police of the Detroit Police Department, was the victim of an attempted carjacking while he was in his police cruiser.
A 2017 study used "Risk Terrain Modeling" analysis to identify spatial indicators of carjacking risk in Detroit. The analysis identified six factors that "were influential in the best fitting model: proximity to service stations; convenience/grocery/; bus stops; residential and commercial demolitions; and areas with high concentrations of drug arrests and restaurants." The study found that certain locations in Detroit "had an expected rate of carjacking that was 278 times higher than other locations."
As of 2021, the American city with the highest number of carjackings is Chicago. Chicago began experiencing a surge in carjackings after 2019, and at least 1,415 such crimes took place in the city in 2020.Jeremy Gorner & Jonathon Berlin, Carjackings more than double in Chicago during 2020, police say, perhaps as criminals blended in with masked public, Chicago Tribune (January 18, 2021). According to the Chicago Police Department, carjackers are using face masks that are widely worn due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to effectively blend in with the public and conceal their identity. 2021 saw a further increase to a 20-year high of over 1,800 carjackings.Peter Nickeas and Priya Krishnakumar, 'It's a disturbing trend.' Cities see large increases in carjackings during pandemic, CNN (January 23, 2022). On January 27, 2021, Mayor Lori Lightfoot described the worsening wave of carjackings as being 'top of mind,' and added 40 police officers to the CPD carjacking unit.Gregory Pratt & John Byrne, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot says spike in carjackings ‘top of mind,’ adding 40 more police officers to carjacking unit and gathering regional mayors, Chicago Tribune (January 27, 2021).
Many other cities have seen a similar increase in carjackings since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 500 carjackings were recorded in New York City in 2021, compared to 328 in 2020 and 132 in 2019. Likewise, the police department of Philadelphia reported over 800 in 2021, compared to 170 in 2015. 281 carjackings occurred in New Orleans in 2021 while 105 occurred there in 2018, while Oakland reported 301 carjackings in 2020 and 521 carjackings in 2021.Jeff Parsons, Once willing to defund police, Oakland, Calif. now faces a major violent crime spike, KATV (January 11, 2022).
The law of some states, such as Louisiana, explicitly lists a killing in the course of defending oneself against forcible entry of an occupied motor vehicle as a justifiable homicide.Associated Press, Louisiana Drivers Given License to Kill (August 14, 1997).Susan Michelle Gerlin, Louisiana's New "Kill the Carjacker" Statute: Self-Defense or Instant Injustice?, 55 Wash. U. J. Urb. & Contemp. L. 10, (January 1999).
|
|
