Crimes against a Person or a Person’s Property

False Imprisonment

False imprisonment is the intentional unlawful confinement or restraint of another person.

California Penal Code Section 236 defines false imprisonment as: “The unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another.” If a person is falsely imprisoned by means of violence, menace, fraud, or deceit, the crime of false imprisonment is considered a felony and is punishable by imprisonment in state prison.

Kidnapping

California Penal Code Section 207 defines kidnapping as: ” Every person who forcibly, or by any other means of instilling fear, steals or takes, or holds, detains, or arrests any person in this state, and carries the person into another country, state, or county, or into another part of the same county, is guilty of kidnapping.” Kidnapping is a felony. (Note, a person may be “kidnapped” by moving the person only a few feet, for example, into a building or into another room in a building.)

Burglary

Every person who enters any building with the specific intent to steal, take, and carry away the personal property of another of any value and with the further specific intent to deprive the owner permanently of that property is guilty of the crime of burglary in violation of Penal Code Section 459. (California Jury Instructions Criminal Section 14.50.)

Robbery

Robbery is the taking of personal property from another person, while in their immediate presence, and with intent to permanently deprive thereof by force or threats.