carjack

tr.v., -jacked, or -jacked, -jack·ing, or -jack·ing, -jacks, or -jacks.
To commit forcible theft of (a vehicle) from its users.

[CAR + (HI)JACK.]

carjacker car'jack'er n.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The criminal taking of a motor vehicle from its driver by force, violence, or intimidation.

Car-jacking incidents emerged in increasing numbers in the 1980s and 1990s, after their initial appearance in Detroit. Because the crime is often reported as an auto theft, armed robbery, assault and battery, or homicide, statistics on it are not accurate. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 19,000 car-jackings were reported in 1991 and 21,000 in the first ten months of 1992. The FBI believes that these figures represent only about one-third of the car-jackings that actually occur in the United States each year. According to the United Press International (UPI), car-jacking attempts in the United States averaged 35,000 a year between 1987 and 1992. This figure includes successful as well as attempted but unsuccessful car-jackings. Lending support to the contention that car-jacking is a violent crime, the UPI's statistics show that guns were used in 59 percent of all car-jackings.

In the early 1990s, car-jackers began targeting older people, women, and tourists — groups of conspicuous vulnerability. The makes and models of the cars targeted for car-jacking vary from city to city — and it is not only the expensive, top-of-the-line cars that are taken but also older and less pricey automobiles. This may be because car-jackings are more crimes of opportunity than of premeditation. Car-jackers simply wait for an unaware driver, an open window, or an unlocked door.

Car-jacking was formally introduced to Congress during its spring 1992 session by Representative Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Over the next several months, a new law involving the crime was discussed and developed into the Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 (18 U.S.C.A. § 2119). The focus was not entirely on car-jacking, but rather on car theft, which had become the number one property crime in the United States, with automobiles constituting more than 50 percent of the property U.S. citizens lost to theft.

In the fall of 1992, Pamela Basu and her twenty-two-month-old daughter were car-jacked in Maryland. Basu was forced from her car by two men and, in a struggle to keep her daughter from being hurt, became caught in the seat belt outside the car. She was dragged almost two miles before she was freed from the seat belt; her daughter, still in her car seat, was thrown from the vehicle a short time later. Basu died of massive internal injuries; her daughter was physically unharmed. The publicity surrounding this crime helped fuel the movement that led to the passage of a provision in the Anti-Car Theft Act of 1992 that made car-jacking a federal offense.

President George Bush signed the act into law on October 25, 1992. The statute's provision regarding car-jacking was as follows:

Whoever, possessing a firearm, as defined in section 921 of this title, takes a motor vehicle that has been transported, shipped or received in interstate or foreign commerce from the person or presence of another by force and violence or by intimidation, or attempts to do so, shall — 1) be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both. 2) If serious bodily injury … results, be fined under this title or be imprisoned not more than 25 years, or both, and 3) if death results, be fined under this title or imprisoned for any number of years up to life, or both.

Within a few months of its passage, the federal car-jacking statute was challenged under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. According to the Fifth Amendment, no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb," meaning that no one can be tried twice for the same crime. After the car-jacking statute was passed, people who used a firearm during the commission of a car-jacking were not only subject to punishment under that statute but also faced mandatory punishment under 18 U.S.C.A. § 924(c), which outlaws the use or carrying of a firearm in relation to a violent crime. The issue came to a head in United States v. Singleton, 16 F.3d 1419 (5th Cir. 1994), when the presiding judge ruled that both the firearm portion of the car-jacking statute and the gun statute proscribed the same conduct, and Congress had not shown that it would impose cumulative punishment under these two statutes. Therefore, the gun count in the car-jacking statute violated the Double Jeopardy Clause.

Within several months of Singleton, amendments to the car-jacking portion of the Anti-Car Theft Statute were debated in the House of Representatives and Senate. The result was a provision in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, 42 U.S.C.A. et seq., Pub. L. No. 104-126, which was signed by President Bill Clinton. The provision made two significant amendments to 18 U.S.C.A. § 2119. The first was that a death sentence can be handed down in cases where a car-jacking victim is killed. The second was that "possessing a firearm, as defined under section 921 of this title" was deleted and replaced with "with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm." This removed the double jeopardy problem identified in Singleton.

Although car-jacking has been made a federal crime, several states also have legislation on the subject. One is Florida, which has a big tourist industry. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, an increasing number of tourists, most of them foreign, were victims of car-jackings in Florida. Because tourists in well-marked rental cars were common car-jacking victims, Florida passed legislation in 1993 (F.S.A. § 320.0601) that outlawed company logos and license plates that made rental and leased cars obvious. Florida's legislators felt that tourists warranted this extra protection for three main reasons. First, tourists are, more often than not, unfamiliar with the area and are more likely to become lost or end up in a high-crime area. Second, tourists often carry more cash than natives, which makes them prime robbery targets. And finally, fewer tourists are likely to return and testify in court about a crime. By granting tourists the right to drive unmarked rental cars, Florida made them less vulnerable to the crime of car-jacking.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The verb has one meaning:

Meaning #1: take someone's car from him by force

---

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - donkraft

Français (French)
n. - vol de voiture (avec attaque du conducteur)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Autoentführung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πειρατεία αυτοκινήτου, ληστεία οδηγού αυτοκινήτου

Italiano (Italian)
dirottamento d'auto

Português (Portuguese)
n. - roubo (m) de carros

Русский (Russian)
угон автомобиля

Español (Spanish)
n. - asalto a un automovilista en su propio vehículo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - domkraft

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
汽车劫持

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 汽車劫持

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 노상에서 자동차 털기

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 車を強盗する

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חטיפת מכונית, שוד מכונית‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.