Carjacking

Michael Cherbonneau, James M. O’Berry and Heith Copes

Chapter 25 in Research Handbook on Violent Crime and Society, 2025, pp 412-431 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Violent property theft (typically in the form of robbery) is one of the most infamous categories of interpersonal crime. Increasingly, attention is being paid to a less frequent but nevertheless fear-inducing type of violent theft: carjacking. This fear has been amplified by a clear spike in carjacking in many large US cities during the 2020s. In the present chapter, we provide an overview of carjacking, including a close look at data sources and trends, victim, offender and incident characteristics, and overall carjacking patterns within the United States, and what is known internationally. We then examine offender motivation and decision-making within carjacking, how typical carjacking incidents play out and what offenders do once they have obtained a vehicle. We conclude with a discussion of the nature of carjacking as a hybrid or intermediate offense between violent and property crimes and a call for more precise, thorough and cogent quantitative data regarding carjacking to better inform scientific understanding and policy.

Keywords: Carjacking; Robbery; Crime trends; Crime decision-making (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035317851
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