I see someone asked the question on yahoo answers, but no one really answered just gave the history of the term mugging.
I believe a mugging involves threat of violence, or use of a knife or gun unless the victim hands over money/valuables. Why isn’t this just called robbery/armed robbery?
According to the OED, the term dates from mid-1800s British slang…IANAL but I assume in court the actual crime would be called (some form of) robbery.
I’m not aware of anyone being charged with “mugging” in a US court… it’s just 1st, 2nd, or 3rd degree robbery. Why there is another word for this I can’t say.
I think mugging implies a robbery of a person on the street, or in public. But there are of course other sorts of robbery, such as of a store. So it’s a subset of robbery.
A robbery can be from a car, jacket hung up, house, suitcase, office. A mugging is taking items from another person by force, usually in a public place.
I’m pretty sure “robbery” is exclusive to crimes where the victim is present. Yoinking a wallet from somebody’s unattended coat would just be theft, breaking into an unoccupied house or office would be burglary, etc. Robbery must involve a present victim and the use of force or the threat of force to deprive them of property.
Theft and robbery/robbing, I think, are dependent on whether the victim is aware and present? You can be a victim of theft where you’re not there, a robbery is where you are there, a mugging is where you were forcibly relieved of your possessions. Not sure about the legal terms. You could say “The thieves stole my car radio”, “My store was robbed”, and “I was mugged in the street and they stole my wallet and phone”.
Yoinked, ha ha. I’d prefer to have my wallet yoinked than be mugged. Mugging, to me, implies force and unintended consequences. I’ve been mugged but not robbed. Robbed is where someone holds a knife or gun and says “Gimme your money”, mugging is where they jump you and raid your pockets.
For me, it is this. ↑↑↑
The actual charge is armed robbery at least in Massachusetts. Two men tried to mug me with knives outside of my apartment in 1999. I fought back and won. They went to prison for attempted armed robbery but mugging is the term used in casual conversation because it is more descriptive.
I was mugged, only once. They (three of them) jumped me from behind in a street off Las Ramblas, Barcelona, very late at night. I shouldn’t have been wandering about, drunk, at 2am but it was the last night of an intensive five week training course and I knew I’d passed and was looking forward to the two weeks holiday after. As I went down my glasses flew off and I tore some ligaments in my knee. Those two weeks were spent in my hotel while Spain won Euro 2008 and, Nadal, a Spanish player, won Wimbledon. I could hear everyone outside celebrating but could only watch on tv, and I don’t speak Spanish well enough to understand the commentators.
I think the actual charge is “Being an idiot”.
I don’t know anywhere that mugging is a legal term. In legal speak there is theft, robbery and burglary. Each have a specific meaning. You can say “I just got mugged!” or “My house just got robbed!” and you wouldn’t be wrong in the colloquial sense. But that is not what anyone would be charged with.
Robbery in NY is defined as forcible stealing. Mugging is a colloquial term. If someone points a gun and demands money or property, legally it’s robbery whether the it happens on the street or in a store and whether the money/property comes out of your pocket or out of the register or off the shelves in your store. Mugging is just a subset of robbery - no one calls it a mugging when the perp dmands the contents of the cash register at gunpoint.
Not really.
I once called the police, in a somewhat agitated mood, and, not knowing how best to explain myself, said “I’ve been robbed.”
He replied, “What do you mean?” (sounding quite confused).
(Huh? You’re the police. Don’t you know about things like robbery?) I said “Someone broke into my flat and took things.”
He said (sounding as if a revelation was dawning) “Oh, you mean you’ve been burgled.”
Thank you officer for your lesson in the semantics of crime in my hour of need.
Not really semantics. Robbery just happened: send many units lights and sirens to find the violent criminal.
Burglary: send a few units to make sure that the residence is clear but generally it’s not an urgent call. (unless you say he’s still in the house)
*Burglary is an unlawful or forcible entry or attempted entry of a residence for the purpose of committing a criminal offence, usually theft.
A person is guilty of robbery if he steals, and immediately before or at the time of doing so, and in order to do so, he uses force on any person or puts or seeks to put any person in fear of being then and there subjected to force.*
So Burglary is breaking into your house and nicking stuff; while robbery (or mugging) means you were forced to hand your stuff over by being threatened.
The wording and exact meaning is different between jurisdictions. In general burglary is entering a structure with the intent to commit a crime (usually theft). You don’t have to succeed in taking anything. If you break into a house and steal something you get charged with burglary and theft. For something like a home invasion you would probably be charged with burglary, robbery, theft and probably some form of kidnapping or criminal restraint.
Interestingly enough, at common law, burglary included the requirement that the breaking and entering must be during the nighttime.
“Robbery” is the term the LEO filling out the police report will use, “mugging” is the term the reporter covering the incident for the local newspaper will use.
Burglary - Entering a building with the intent to commit a crime (usually Larceny, but also very infrequently used against hookers and drug dealers and other types of criminals, like stalkers)
Larceny - Theft
Grand Larceny - Theft of property that exceeds a threshold of value (threshold is defined by the particular laws of the area)
Robbery - Using physical force, or the threat of force, to steal (assault is using an unlawful threat of physical force, but not necessarily to steal). If someone broke into your house while you were asleep, and in the morning you woke up and your TV is missing, you weren’t robbed, your home was burglarized.
Mugging - Colloquial (not legal) term for robbery