What is the difference between theft and grand larceny?

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asked Oct 30, 2018 in Law Enforcement/Police by otionmon (240 points)
What is the difference between theft and grand larceny?

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answered Oct 31, 2018 by Grahlu (51,270 points)
Larceny which is a common law crime is the taking of personal property belonging to another with intent to permanently deprive the owner the use of that property.

Theft is much broader although when you commit the crime of theft you're also likely taking that persons property intentionally with intent to deprive the person of it.

But then again you may not actually knew you stole something which can happen so that would fall under theft.

As an example say you tried on a hat in a store and then accidentally walked out of that store while wearing that hat.

That wouldn't be considered larceny because you didn't intend to steal the hat so it would be considered theft.

However if you got caught and then explained what happened then likely nothing will happen to you or if you did manage to walk out of the store with the hat on and then returned to the store to apologize and/or pay for it then you would likely not get charged with anything.

In short though theft and larceny can mean the same thing however it's usually the way thing were stolen which determines whether it's larceny or theft.

Also theft can simply mean the action of stealing something whether intended or not.
But to get charged with larceny means you intended to steal the belongings.

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