There are many different forms of theft, the various nuanced differences are not generally understood. A brief overview should clear up the issue.
The group of crimes collectively known as theft are not generally understood by the common law-abiding citizen, and are thus generally either misunderstood or used interchangeably with one another. While on the surface the subject may seem rather simple, on closer examination it is much more nuanced than most people realize.
When, for example, is an act of theft considered robbery, and when is it considered burglary? What is the difference between embezzlement, fraud and larceny? When are these things grand and when are they petty?
So here is a brief rundown of the basics:
Burglary/Larceny
A crime is considered a burglary when it is accompanied by an act of trespassing or breaking and entering. So, if one was to pick a door lock, enter into a house in the middle of the night in order to commit a crime, one would be burgling. They would be a burglar.
Burglary does not necessarily mean the intent to steal. Burglary can include any crime, really, including vandalism or personal intimidation. If the intent in a burglary is to steal possessions (or anything that does not rightfully belong to the burglar), then the burglary is actually bumped up a notch and considered larceny.
Robbery
On the other hand, if one was to confront the owner of a home while burgling use violence against them (or even threaten to do so) in order to steal things, the crime would now be considered a robbery (as well as still being considered both burglary andlarceny, though robbery would certainly be the most prominent of these crimes).
So, if one was to walk into a bank and steal the money from the vault at gunpoint, the criminal would not be committing burglary, as they entered the building legally in the first place, but they would still be committing a robbery (or, if they were pirates, they might consider it plundering instead), because they did so under the threat of violence, and they would be committing larceny, since my intent was to take others' property.
Grand vs. Petty
An act of theft, whether robbery, burglary or larceny, is considered to be “grand” (i.e. grand larceny or grand theft auto) when the crime exceeds a certain monetary value. In many American states, larceny is considered grand when it exceeds $200, while theft is considered grand when it exceeds anywhere from $100 to $1000. Anything less than this would be considered petty. Pretty simple, actually.
Embezzlement
Moving on, if a person worked for a wealthy individual who entrusted them with a hefty envelope of money and ordered them to take it to the bank and deposit it into the employer’s account, and while on the way to the bank the employee happened to see a piece of candy in a candy shop and decided that your employer wouldn't notice if just one of his dollar bills happened to disappear on the way... well then, they would be committing embezzlement.
Anytime, in fact, that a person's lawfully owned property is entrusted into one’s care, should the entrustee be so inconsiderate as to steal it, or “skim some off the top,” they are committing embezzlement (perhaps the cleverest forms of thievery).
Fraud
On the other hand, if one unlawfully trick or coerce an unknowing person out of his/her money or possessions, they are committing fraud. Unfortunately, there is really no more specific definition than that – a fraud is simply any act of deceiving a person out of their rightful possessions. The difference between fraud and embezzlement is that in fraud, the thief never actually has any sort of legal right to the money they end up taking (where an embezzler is, at one point or another, entrusted with the money that they take).
There are many different types of fraud, ranging from the simplest scams (Want to see a magic trick? I’ll make that ten dollar bill of yours disappear) to the most ingeniously complicated hoaxes imaginable (plenty of movies have been made about such activities). In the fraud category is where the true artists of the seedy criminal underbelly of society like to hang out.
Now, armed with this knowledge, one should be able to recognize the primary categories of theft, if it ever comes up. Not that anyone reading this would ever be foolish enough to attempt any of this.
References:
Answers.com
Law.com Legal Dictionary
