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One of the key elements in charging most crimes is the intent of the person accused of committing the crime. When a crime is committed, your intention can make all the difference—not only with regard to the crimes you are charged with, but also in what the prosecutor will be able to prove in court. One area where intent is particularly important is when a car goes missing.
What is Car Theft?
In Illinois, car theft is handled under the state’s general theft law. There is not a special statute for motor vehicle theft. The theft statute requires the intention to permanently deprive the rightful owner of the use or the benefit of the property. Permanently depriving the owner of the use or the benefit of a car may take many different forms. Taking a car and selling it to someone else would be considered theft. Taking a car and then driving it into a lake would also be considered theft. Both of these actions show that there was an intention to permanently deprive the owner of his or her car.
If your child is under the age of 18, then you, as a parent, have certain rights when your child is involved with the criminal justice system. The better you understand your rights and your child’s rights, the better you will be able to help him or her after he or she has been arrested or charged with a crime.
Parent’s Rights After an Arrest
If your child has been arrested, he or she has all of the same state and federal rights as anyone else. Moreover, as a parent of an arrestee under the age of 18 in Illinois, you also have rights.
First, you have a right to know why your child was detained. The police should not tell you that the information is confidential and that you will have to wait for your child to be released, or that your child must tell you. Law enforcement is required to inform you as to why your child was arrested.
Being arrested and charged with a violent crime can turn an individual's entire life upside down. Two of the most common violent crimes in Illinois are assault and battery. Assault and battery are often charged together. Even though the terms assault and battery are used in everyday language to mean the same thing, legally they are two very different concepts.
The Difference Between Assault and Battery
Under Illinois law, you commit the crime of assault when you place someone else in reasonable apprehension or fear of physical harm. You do not have to have actually harmed, or even touched, an individual to be charged with assault. Making a threatening gesture or raising a fist can be enough to result in assault charges.
If you bounce a check, it may result in more than just an issue with your bank and the retailer you tried to pay. You may find yourself under arrest and charged with a crime. Even though fewer and fewer people use paper checks, people are charged with different crimes relating to writing bad checks every year.
When is Writing a Bad Check More Than Just a Civil Issue?
When a merchant receives notice that your check bounced, he or she may decide to report you to law enforcement. Writing a check when there are not sufficient funds in your account for the check to clear may fall under the Illinois category of crimes known as deceptive practices.
The law presumes that you knew your check would bounce if there was not sufficient funds in your account when you wrote or delivered the check. You will have the chance to rebut this presumption with your own evidence.
Stalking is considered a domestic violence crime in Illinois. There are several different offenses that are considered stalking crimes. Sometimes the line between legal, yet annoying and offensive behavior, and behavior that is illegal and considered stalking can be hard to determine.
What is Stalking?
Stalking is when you follow someone or put him or her under surveillance more than once and you threaten, or cause, him or her to fear being physically harmed, sexually assaulted or confined. Stalking does not have to be done in person.
Illinois has a cyberstalking crime that covers behavior online and over cell phones. You can be charged with cyberstalking even if you have never spoken to the victim.
Difference Between Stalking Order and Stalking Crime
Some of the harshest penalties for traffic violations are reserved for construction zones. People may be tempted to just pay the expensive fine and move on. However, that may not be your best option.
Consequences for Speeding in a Constriction Zone
The fine for a first offense when speeding in a construction zone is a minimum of $375. The fine may be even more, depending on how fast you were driving in the construction zone.
If you are cited for speeding in a construction zone for a second time, then the minimum fine is $1,000. Just as with a first offense, the fine can be even more, depending on your speed. If you are cited a second time for speeding in a construction zone within two-years of your first citation, you will also have your driver’s license suspended for 90 days.
When confronted by law enforcement, many people worry about exercising their rights—they do not want to "look guilty." However, this is the wrong way to look at one's rights. Once you better understand what your rights are and why they are important, the better prepared you will be if you are ever investigated or arrested for a crime.
Understanding Law Enforcement’s Perspective
The police and other law enforcement agencies are charged with upholding the law. Part of their job is to investigate crimes, arrest the suspected criminals, and collect evidence for prosecutors to use in a criminal trial.
When you are contacted by law enforcement, you do not know if they are investigating a crime or collecting evidence. Law enforcement officers do not have to tell you if they think you are guilty of a crime.
Not all crimes occur face-to-face. Certain crimes, such as computer tampering, can occur from anywhere over the Internet. Illinois law provides serious consequences for anyone convicted of tampering with someone else’s computer.
How Illinois Defines Computer Tampering
Computer tampering is unauthorized access to programs, data, or the computer, and it uses the access for fraudulent purposes or to damage another computer, data or program. This covers a wide range of activities. Computer tampering could include illegal sharing of movies and music or pranks such as changing the content of a website.
You can even be convicted of computer tampering if you have authorized access to a computer or network, if your actions exceed your authorization. In some cases, computer tampering charges will be brought in addition to other charges. For example, someone who is in charge of payroll can be charged with theft and computer tampering if they use their access to a computer to increase their paychecks when they were not authorized to do so.
Not every guilty plea or verdict of guilty means jail or prison time. Many people convicted of crimes will instead be sentenced to probation.
While for many probation is better than serving time behind bars, there are still serious consequences to a criminal conviction and probation term.
Length of Sentence
Probation is often an alternative to time behind bars. However, most probations sentences are backed by threat of jail or prison time if the probation terms are not kept.
Some offenders will be given a suspended sentence. This means that they are sentenced to a period of incarceration, but that sentence is not actually executed if the offender complies with probation.
It is possible for an offender to spend more time on probation than they would spend behind bars depending on the crime and the level of compliance with the terms of probation.
Most people would consider shoplifting to be a minor crime, but even small time theft like shoplifting can have serious consequences. Shoplifting and other types of retail theft involves more than just taking something without paying for it.
Different Types of Retail Theft
Illinois does not have a statute titled shoplifting. Instead, shoplifting is classified under the retail theft provisions of the law. The statute makes it illegal to take or obtain merchandise from a retail establishment with the full retail value of the merchandise.
This means that retail theft is more than just taking something and leaving the store without paying for it. Actions such as price switching, exchanging merchandise that was stolen, or trying to confuse a cashier and get the wrong change back are additional forms of retail theft.
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