Criminal Behavior and Crimes against Property Assignment

Criminal Behavior and Crimes against Property - Assignment Example The Bureau of Justice, Criminal Victimization Report (2011) disclosed the relevant statistics pertaining to crimes against property, in general. It was revealed that â€Å"the overall property crime rate, which includes burglary and theft, increased 11% between 2010 and 2011, from 125.4 to 138.7 victimizations per 1,000 households† (Bureau of Justice, 2012, p. 1). The specific type of property crime pertaining to stolen fossils across countries apparently falls under the category: cultural property, art and antiquities which are being governed by the Homeland Security Investigation (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), n.d.). There were just about 41 cases of cultural heritage repatriations that were specifically enumerated in ICE’s official website since 2003 (U.S. ICE, n.d.), excluding the recently reported stolen property. As emphasized, â€Å"the theft and trafficking of cultural items is a practice that is older than history. What is new about it is how easy it is for cultural pirates to acquire valuable antiquities, artworks and artifacts, fossils, coins or textiles and move them around the globe, swiftly, easily and inexpensively without regard to laws, borders, nationalities or their value to a nation’s heritage† (U.S. ICE, n.d., par. 2). Likewise, it was also noted that â€Å"since 2007, more than 6,600 artifacts have been returned to 24 countries, including paintings from France, Germany, Poland and Austria, 15th to 18th century manuscript from Italy and Peru, as well as cultural artifacts from China, Cambodia and Iraq† (U.S. ICE, 2012, par. 12). From the news article, it was specifically noted that the perpetrator, Eric Prokopi, was acknowledged to be a commercial paleontologist whose job included obtaining â€Å"fossils from around the world, sometimes buying or trading them, and works with museums and major auction houses† (Moynihan, 2012, par. 19). Thus, the stolen fossil was then being auctioned at Heritage Auctions for profit. As noted, the â€Å"dinosaur skeleton sold for more than $1 million† (Moynihan, 2012, par. 2).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚