Motor Vehicle Theft Research Paper

Introduction Motor vehicle theft has always been a major issue in the United States. In 2013, 697,979 motor thefts were reported in the nation. The FBI stated that every forty-four seconds a car is stolen in the United States (Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association). In 2010, more than 4.5 billion dollars were lost throughout the nation because of motor vehicle theft (U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Investigation). This research paper examines if vehicle theft is more likely to happen in a low-income setting or location. The dependent variables in this study are the motor vehicle theft rates. The independent variables in this study are the criminals who commit motor vehicle theft. Both variables types are scale.

Regression is used to test whether or not a low-income setting or a geographical location plays a role to why motor vehicle theft is committed. The dependent variables in this study is motor vehicle theft rates and the independent variables are the criminals who commit motor vehicle theft. The total number of motor vehicle thefts being tested in this study is 7,301. The method for this research is questionnaires given to victims who have had their vehicles stolen to determine what they learned about the offenders’ intents for stealing their vehicles. This study is done over a six-month period. The results showed that settings or geographical locations do not play a role in motor vehicle theft. It depends if the offender is a temporary or permanent offender and what his intentions are when stealing the

This article states that many offenders like to choose places where people park their car and leave it alone for a long period of time. A common place that kept re-occurring in this research was a church parking lot. Offenders like to pick their days and times to act out the crime so they will not get caught (Suresh, 2013). The article “Sociological Models of Automotive Theft: Integrating Routine Activity and Social Disorganization Approaches” applies sociological theory to why motor vehicle theft is committed. A theory they used was the routine theory. They state that there are three elements that lead to the motor vehicle theory. They are accessibility, guardianship, and target suitability. Accessibility means that offenders plan their attacks on areas they know well and have more traffic. They want to get areas with more traffic because they know they have a greater chance of someone leaving the windows open or leaving the keys in the transmission so it is easier to steal the vehicle (Hannon,