The Difference Between Fraud And Theft

Theoretically,fraud and theft are two totally different counts which can be easily understood literally.But for some reasons as the following,in judicial practice,sometimes the two counts can be hardly distinguished from each other.The subjects of the two counts are both common subjects who has reached the age of16.The objects of the two counts are both encroaching upon on legal properties of others.The subjective aspects of the two counts are both direct intention.The only difference is the objective aspect.Nevertheless, in judicial practice,a lot of fraud cases, such as " Water discharging" case, involve elements of stealing, and vice versa,which requires judicial personnel to distinguish and identify one from another.Apparently both fraud and theft constitutes a crime and it seems that there is no need to strictly distinguish one from another.But in judicial practice,whether it is a case of fraud or theft is totally different for the suspects in results. According to the relevant laws and regulations,criminal policies and judicial practice in China,to distinguish fraud from theft is not only a matter of measurement of penality,but also a matter of constituting a crime or not. In this paper,a conclusion that it is necessary to distinguish the two crimes is drawn after analyzing and researching the definitions and consequences of the typical case-"Water discharging" case.In this thesis, I made an analysis and research on the related theories and the methods used in judicial practice concerning how to distinguish fraud from theft.After that I found the said theories all emphasized on a particular aspect which leads to different results when dealing with some typical fraud-theft confusing cases as there is no unified standard to distinguish the two crimes.At last I draw a conclusion. The key to distinguish fraud from theft depends on the theory of "Transfer",that is how the property involved is transferred from victims to suspects.If the property is secretly stolen from the victims,it is a case of theft.If the property is given by the victims because of misjudgment forged by the suspects,it is a case of fraud.After further analysis and research,I discovered that it isn’t difficult to find out that any typical fraud-theft confusing cases can be divided into three periods according to the theory of "Transfer"-before property transferred, the period of property transferred,after property transferred. However the definition of a case is determined by the second period,namely, the period of property transferred. Typical fraud-theft confusing cases can be classified into some types according to the periods.If it is the stealing that acts a deciding role in transferring the property in the second period,it is a case of theft and there are four types of cases:cheating first stealing later,stealing first cheating later,stealing covered by cheating,cheating but actually stealing. If it is the cheating that act a deciding role in transferring the property in the second period,it is a case of fraud,there is only one type-a real fraud case.Finally,I analyzed and demonstrated the " Water discharging" case in the beginning of the thesis with the theory of "Transfer".At last,1draw a conclusion-the "Water discharging" case should be a case of theft rather than a case of fraud defined by the wu jiang people’s court.