THE KEY TO AUTO THEFT: Emerging Methods of Auto Theft from the Offenders' Perspective

Recent improvements in vehicle security have reduced the opportunities for auto theft for many would-be thieves. Auto thieves have adapted to these changes by illegally obtaining keys to accomplish their misdeeds. To combat this trend in auto theft, it is necessary to determine commonly preferred methods of key theft. We rely on the accounts of auto thieves who used keys to steal vehicles to shed light on the techniques and strategies that they employed to obtain keys. Offenders' accounts show that while some of them simply found keys left in cars, many took more active steps in locating and stealing keys. They relied on such strategies as burglary, robbery or fraud to acquire keys. Our results suggest that key thieves are not solely opportunistic but instead exhibit some degree of reasoning when offending.

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