Stealing is wrong free essay sample

The following essay will cover what I learned about stealing. I will cover the following topics: What is stealing? What trust issues it could cause with my fellow classmates, teachers, friends, community, and family. What the possible consequences could be if I was seventeen and committed this crime. Possible ways to keep myself from stealing. How my actions affect my relationships with family, friends, and community. What I can do to affect people in a positive way. How do I want people to look at me. What could happen if I didnt stop this behavior? I found the legal definition of stealing on legal-dictionary. It states that stealing (or the legal term, larceny) is the wrongful and fraudulent taking and carrying away, by one person, of the mere personal goods, of another, from any place, with a felonious intent to convert them to his, the takers use, and make them his property, without the consent of the owner. We will write a custom essay sample on Stealing is wrong or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Larceny is usually a nonviolent crime. It was made to punish criminals who stole without face to face encounters. Unlike robbery which is sometimes forced or violent. Grand larceny was any larceny of property worth more than a certain amount of money. Any larceny of property worth less than that amount was called petit larceny and was punished less severely. Trust issues could develop with your friends, family, school, and your community if the they are aware you are stealing. Once you lose someones trust it is very hard to earn it back. Your family may treat you differently and hide things from you and lock away anything they might think you would possibly steal. Also if you lie about stealing something but later is found out they will hardly ever believe you when you say you didnt do something even if you are really innocent. They might feel it ruins their reputation if they know or are friends with teachers or other students parents who know about it. Your friends may not want to hangout or be seen with you if everyone knows you are a thief. They might make fun of you or just be completely ashamed. Unless they are also known for stealing then you shouldnt be friends with them in the first place. Nobody likes a thief. So if word gets around and people in your community hear about a thief around they might be suspicious of you and if anything happens they will automatically assume you were the person who did it. At school the teachers and staff will always be suspicious of you and if you do the slightest thing wrong they will not give you another chance. They may not even like you and will punish you as severely as possible. It could bring shame to any siblings you go to school with and ruin your reputation. Your family and friends will be embarrassed and ashamed to be seen with you. Nothing good could ever come of being a thief. It will only ruin your life and your future. If you are convicted of stealing and get a felony it could be really hard to find a decent job. You could spend the rest of your life barely being able to provide for yourself and your family because of a stupid mistake you made when you were young. I found on www. mobar. org that if I was seventeen and caught stealing I would be tried as an adult. That means I would not have the possibility of seeing a juvenile officer and discussing the incident. I would immediately have to get a court date and could possibly go to jail depending on the seriousness of the crime. especially of it is a felony or not. I found this on Wikipedia: Stealing is a felony if the value of stolen property exceeds $500. It is also a felony if â€Å"The actor physically takes the property appropriated from the person of the victim† or the stolen property is a vehicle, legal document, credit card, firearm, explosive, U. S. flag on display, livestock animal, fish with value exceeding $75, captive wildlife, controlled substance, or ammonia. Anything not listed or below the value of 500 dollars is considered a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor crime is one for which the potential jail sentence is less than one year. Any crime that provides for a potential incarceration sentence of a year or more is categorized as a felony. A misdemeanor could result in jail time, fines, restitution, and probation. There are several ways to keep myself from stealing. One way is to just stop and think, nothing could be worth spending your life in jail or prison, never seeing your family or loved ones. They might not even want anything to do with you because they are so ashamed and embarrassed. Another way would be to think of how if you were caught think of how it would change how people look at you. They will look at you with disgust and some hatred and some wont even care enough to give you a look or even acknowledge you as a human. You just have to stop and ignore your impulses. With me it was just a spur of the moment thing. I know that it was wrong and I felt so stupid and embarrassed being led out of the school in handcuffs. I wonder how many people were laughing at me. I need to focus more on important things like my grades and what I need to take care of. I need to think about whats important in my life. If I ever get the urge to steal anything at all I need to think of my future, this is my last chance if I mess up again Ill be in serious trouble, no more help, no more slaps on the wrist. The consequences couldve been so much worst this time. I got really lucky and I will not let anything like this happen again. I need to think about not only how it would affect me, but the person Im stealing from. That person probably had to work hard or deserved that money. I had no right to take it from him. I didnt get mad that he told on me or get mad at the principle for kicking me out of school or even the school officer that arrested me. I was mad at myself for doing something so stupid and pointless. I would pay a lot more just to go back and stop myself from doing it. I havent ever had anything stolen from me so I dont really know how it feels but Im pretty sure I would be extremely angry and hurt. Especially if it was from one of my classmates or someone I knew. There is nothing worse than disappointing the few people who truly care and love you. I dont want to disappoint anyone anymore. I want to prove everyone wrong that has doubts about me.