Taking $100 is theft. Period. You can’t accidentally pocket $100 out of a register.
Boss shorting your check $100 could be an accident. Often not even their accident these days with payroll software. Until it happens consistently it’s not guaranteed intentional.
And yet the accidental theft of walking out of a store with unpurchased goods is still punishable by the same laws that would affect those with destructive intent.
Sure, intent “should” be a major factor in crime, but it is definitely skewed in how it is regularly applied.
Because the most reasonable explanation for being shorted on a paycheck is an accounting error, meaning no malice intended. Unless the employer tried to keep the money after realizing the mistake, they should at most be given a fine.
Assuming the original post meant robbing the store, that’s quite different. There is malicious intent to deprive strangers of their money, and probably at threat of violence. Or even if it was just unattended, the theft is still done with malicious intent. The last situation is much like pickpocketing, so the analogy fits.
Why’s that?
Intent?
Taking $100 is theft. Period. You can’t accidentally pocket $100 out of a register.
Boss shorting your check $100 could be an accident. Often not even their accident these days with payroll software. Until it happens consistently it’s not guaranteed intentional.
And yet the accidental theft of walking out of a store with unpurchased goods is still punishable by the same laws that would affect those with destructive intent.
Sure, intent “should” be a major factor in crime, but it is definitely skewed in how it is regularly applied.
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Because the most reasonable explanation for being shorted on a paycheck is an accounting error, meaning no malice intended. Unless the employer tried to keep the money after realizing the mistake, they should at most be given a fine.
Assuming the original post meant robbing the store, that’s quite different. There is malicious intent to deprive strangers of their money, and probably at threat of violence. Or even if it was just unattended, the theft is still done with malicious intent. The last situation is much like pickpocketing, so the analogy fits.