The difference between a Burglary vs. robbery depends on the circumstance. In a theft, a person is typically present when the offender takes the property away from them by force or fear. Whereas with burglary, the offender is stealing property in a residence while the owner is not home.
However, a burglary can also involve the presence of a person. The offender, in this case, is not technically stealing from a person’s hand, but it just so happens that a person is present in the home.
A robbery is treated a bit more harshly than burglary because of a person’s presence. There is an added danger when someone is present while a robbery is taking place.
It’s much scarier to a person when the robber is present and the owner is witnessing the robber in action versus no one being home during the crime. Burglary vs. robbery are violative to a person, but theft is usually a much more severe crime.
Significant Differences Burglary Vs. Robbery
There are degrees of burglary. A first-degree burglary involves residencies, while a second-degree burglary involves theft from a store.
A robbery is usually one degree. However, a more severe robbery such as home invasion carries is criminally more significant. A home invasion robbery can involve the owners being tied up and injured while their home gets robbed; for more information on Burglary Vs. Robbery, click here.
The prosecutor in a robbery case will take all factors into account when deciding the type of applicable sentence for the defendant.
For instance, if the offender hurt someone with a gun, stabbed them, or performed some other violent activity during a robbery, the prosecutors can argue that the robber deserves six years because they were violent and hurt the victim or victims.
Any injury can exacerbate the crime and make it more serious. The more violent a robbery, the stronger the argument can be for the prosecutor to send the offender to prison and grant a longer sentence.
Potential Penalties For Burglary And Robbery
You can determine potential penalties for robbery or burglary convictions in California based on whether a person uses a weapon. If a person used a gun to commit a robbery, they’re going to be looking at a ten-year enhancement. The ten-year enhancement for using a weapon is additional to the robbery sentence, two years for a common term.
The minimum a person can be facing would be 12 years, two years for the robbery, plus another ten for the use of a weapon. If the offense is more serious, the punishment is going to be higher. Burglaries don’t usually identify a gun because there often isn’t anyone else present during the burglary to establish the use of a firearm.
The prosecutors and the judges will look at the impact caused to the victim in the robbery or the burglary. They’re going to look at what the offender did, how much value they got away with, and their criminal record.
Legal Difference Between Burglary Vs. Robbery
While a packaged home insurance policy offers financial protection in case of damage due to natural calamities, it also compensates you if somebody breaks into your house and steals your valuables. Burglary is a real threat, and it is good that your insurance covers it. But you must go through the insurance policy’s details to know how it defines burglary.
While you may use the words burglary and robbery interchangeably, the two have different meanings in law, and the insurers observe this distinction. Burglary, by definition, involves a break-in through violent or forcible means. So if a person breaks a window to get into the house or breaks open your cupboard to steal, it is considered burglary. Usually, an HPP covers burglary but not robbery.
Robbery would mean the person committing the crime had access to the house or its valuables. For example, you may have dropped the keys to your house near the door and come back home to discover your jewelry stolen.
This is more a case of negligence. The insurer could say that you should have kept the keys safely. Insurers don’t cover theft because it is difficult to administer and often can be due to negligence. But some insurers also offer robbery insurance as an add-on cover to the HPP.
To know more about burglary vs. robbery, please click here.
Search And Seizure Definition
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants in a theft A a theft A shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
This provides an overview of the Fourth Amendment, how it applies, and some standard exceptions to the requirement that police obtain a valid warrant based upon probable cause. For more information on search and seizure, click here.
The first real inquiry one should make when challenging the validity of a government search is whether a reasonable expectation of privacy exists. It is critical because if the person challenging the search does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the property searched or seized, that person lacks legal standing to challenge the examination.
While police are generally required to get a warrant before executing a search or seizure, courts have developed quite a few exceptions to that general rule over time. In these specific scenarios, police are not required to get a warrant at all. Some of the more common exceptions to the warrant requirement include:
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Search Incident To Arrest
Police are permitted to search you following a lawful arrest, with some limitations.
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Vehicle Search Incident to Arrest
Some circumstances allowWarrants in police to search a vehicle incident to arrest.
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Consent
Police may search a person or property if given consent.
Conclusion
If a person goes in with a gun and steals jewelry from two separate people, that person can be hit with two different robbery charges, and if they got convicted, they would have two strikes on their record moving forward. These examples can give an idea of just how serious these particular crimes are viewed.
