Essay on Robbery

Basically, robbery is the taking of money or goods in the possession of another, from his or her person or immediate presence, by force or intimidation (Lasson, 2007). This definition clearly reveals the fact that the defendant, who has taken the rifle, has not commit a robbery because he did not use weapon, force or other sorts of intimidation. Instead, the actions of the defendant should be defined as theft because theft implies the illegal taking of another person’s property without his/her consent or permission (Levy, 1995). This was the case of taking the rifle by the defendant in the worst case. However, the defendant may refer to the consent of the plaintiff, when he gave the rifle to the defendant. In such a context, the defendant could explain his actions by the consent of the plaintiff to give the rifle to the defendant. Therefore, the defendant could just have borrowed the rifle for a while as the plaintiff agreed to give the weapon to the defendant. However, this defense is quite weak because the defendant did not return the rifle on demand of the plaintiff. Therefore, he committed a crime and he could not explain his actions by mere misunderstanding because the plaintiff demanded soundly his rifle back. In such a context, actions of the defendant were apparently illegal but, at the same time, it is also obvious that his actions cannot be qualified as robbery because the defendant did not use force or intimidation. The defendant may be accused of theft because he committed the crime as he refused to return the property of the plaintiff back. The defendant cannot pretend that he did not commit the crime but he may insist on committing a theft instead of robbery that is a more serious crime.