.jpg)
carjacking
Sign in to savethumb|A sign warning of carjacking activities along a stretch of road in Gauteng, [[South Africa]] Carjacking is a robbery in which a motor vehicle is taken over. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is usually in the presence and knowledge of the victim. A common crime in many places in the world, carjacking has been the subject of legislative responses, criminology studies, prevention efforts as well as being heavily dramatized in major film releases. Commercial vehicles such as trucks and armored cars containing valuable cargo are common targets of carjacking attempts. Carjacking usually in
Article
16 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Studies
- Prevention and response
- Truck carjacking
- Incidents by country
- South Africa
- United States
- Federal Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992
- Prevalence and statistical analysis
- In particular cities
- State law
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Philippines
- See also
- References
thumb|A sign warning of carjacking activities along a stretch of road in Gauteng, [[South Africa]] Carjacking is a robbery in which a motor vehicle is taken over. In contrast to car theft, carjacking is usually in the presence and knowledge of the victim. A common crime in many places in the world, carjacking has been the subject of legislative responses, criminology studies, prevention efforts as well as being heavily dramatized in major film releases. Commercial vehicles such as trucks and armored cars containing valuable cargo are common targets of carjacking attempts. Carjacking usually involves physical violence to the victim, or using the victim as a hostage. In rare cases, carjacking may also involve sexual assault.
==Etymology== The word is a portmanteau of car and hijacking. The term was coined by reporter Scott Bowles and editor E. J. Mitchell with The Detroit News in 1991. The News first used the term in a report on the murder of Ruth Wahl, a 22-year-old Detroit drugstore cashier who was killed when she would not surrender her Suzuki Sidekick, and in an investigative report examining the rash of what Detroit Police call "robbery armed unlawful driving away an automobile" (in dispatch slang shortened to R.A.-YOU-Da) plaguing Detroit. TV series CHiPs season 2 episode 20 airing 2/24/79 has the character Ponch, played by Erik Estrada, using the term carjacking.