Robbery
Robbery was theft committed using force. It was therefore related to theft, in that every robber was also a thief and could be held liable for theft. However, in 77 BC the praetor introduced a special delictual action, the actio vi bonorum raptorum (the action for goods taken by force), to deal specifically with robbery.
The action had to be brought within a year, and imposed fourfold liability on the defender.[2616] Unlike manifest theft, however, this fourfold liability included the value of the property itself. If the property was recovered, the pursuer would only be entitled to triple damages. If the defender was a manifest thief, therefore, as discussed above, it would be better to bring the action for theft.In addition to the requirement for force, liability for robbery depended on fraudulent intent, so no liability for robbery was imposed on a person acting in a genuine belief in ownership.[2617] Concern that this gave an inducement to violent self-help in property disputes, though, led to imperial pronouncements penalising this kind of action by imposing forfeiture of the property (if the taker owned it) or liability to its value (if not).[2618]
The pursuer in an action for robbery did not always have to be owner of the goods. It was enough that the robbery had reduced the pursuer's substance: genÂerally speaking, anyone who could bring an action for theft could, if the theft was committed using force, bring an action for robbery.[2619]
D.
More on the topic Robbery:
- THEFT (FURTUM) AND ROBBERY (RAPINA)
- China was no less violent than any other society in the early modern age. Like Europe, late imperial China had its fair share of wars of empire and peasant rebellions, as well as violent crimes of murder, assault, rape and robbery.
- Collective Blameworthiness and Shared Intentional Action
- Practical Suggestions for Providers and Families
- Stolen Concept
- That crimes were ultimately offenses against the community, not just against individual plaintiffs, was perhaps the most important conceptual breakthrough in law's development. Individual harm was self-evident but only tangentially the state's business.
- Footnotes
- Other Delicts
- The Hercules of Agrigentum
- Quotidien Policing