Pickpocketing

Pickpockets are thieves who steal wallets, passports, and other valuables from people's clothing and bags as they interact in public places. Often included in the category of larceny, the key feature of pickpocketing is that it involves stealth but does not involve force, the threat of force, or deception. Larceny/theft is the attempted or completed unlawful taking, carrying, leading, or riding away of property from the possession or constructive possession of another. Larceny/theft is a miscellaneous, catch-all category that includes acts such as shoplifting, pickpocketing, purse snatching, the theft of contents from automobiles, and bicycle theft. It excludes property crimes that involve deception, including embezzlement, fraud, and forgery.

The dying art of pickpocketing is interesting to examine because of both the high skill involved and its recent decline in the United States. The pickpocket is among those deviants who have disappeared almost entirely over the past several decades. In fact, some researchers consider pickpockets to be nearly nonexistent in the United States. There was once estimated to be 23,000 pickpockets in New York City alone. That number has decreased to a level that the New York City police department now considers it a vanishing breed of criminals, and it no longer keeps statistics on pickpocketing.

Many European cities are home to large numbers of pickpockets, but the United States, which once harbored a large and very active criminal trade of pickpockets, no longer fosters and nurtures this mass of thieves. This change is likely due to the increased use of credit cards and traveler's checks, and enhanced security factors among cities and airports in the United States. Once a lucrative criminal career in the United States, Europe is now the harbor and training ground for this dying art in the United States. This change in the prevalence of pickpocketing can be seen in the demographic makeup of pickpockets in different countries. Those who still engage in the practice in the United States tend to be middle-aged males. In Europe, the average age of pickpockets is between 23 and 35 years. Another possible reason pickpockets are disappearing in the United States are the felony charges attached to such crimes and the longer sentences imposed by courts. The picketpocket offense currently brings with it a felony charge not subject to financial consideration, meaning any amount stolen is deemed to be a felony. Most established pickpockets in the United States are known to the police because many of them have been arrested at least once. Law enforcement officials are now able to track these known criminals easily through electronic communication, media, or billing or any use of identifying numbers such as social security or driver license; hence, catching these men or women is always near at hand, which further reduces the workforce in this criminal professional. While the crime of pickpocketing is seen as becoming a lost art and dying out among the entrepreneurial and skilled sector of criminals, other crimes, like piracy, which were once said to have had the same fate, have returned with a violent vengeance, with [Page 518]perpetrators possessing high levels of organization, skills, and technologies.

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