The Fence: Buying and Selling Stolen Goods

1099 Words5 Pages
Criminal Receiving: The Fence as the Marketer by Dr. Ron Hill reviews the occupation of fencing and marketing similarities that exist between the illegal business of fencing and legal business enterprises. While the article does an excellent job explaining the specifics of a modern fencing operation and how its operation utilizes main stream marketing techniques, the article fails to or ineffectively answers the question of how to stop crime. The ideas are not wrong, but the article spends too much time explaining the fencer’s operation and how it relates to marketing, and not enough on in-depth solutions. The problem is that burglary and fencing have so many unique forms that what works to beat one form does nothing to the other forms. While I would not say Dr. Hill’s argument is absolutely false-there are exceptions to every rule, I would say he is misguided with how much power a fence possesses. For the most part, Fences are creatures of opportunity; Fences didn’t create the thief, the thief created the fence by stealing in the first place. While some fences do finance, plan, and train thieves-these fences are a rare breed. The vast majority of fences merely act as businessmen and buy merchandise as it comes in “No questions asked”. Before I share my views on how to reduce crime, let me explain why I disagree with some of Dr. Hill’s arguments. First, Thieves do not need organized fencing operations to move stolen merchandise. Many thieves move their ‘hot” property in various ways to remain undetected. Thieves use auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s to move stolen items. In addition, thieves can go to legitimate business and move small quantities of stolen goods undetected. While removing the fence and forcing the thief to use these other practices ( I am sure there are many others I have not thought of) would slow the rate at which a thief could

More about The Fence: Buying and Selling Stolen Goods

Open Document