Vanderbilt Law Review Volume 33 Issue 5 Issue 5 - October 1980 Article 2 10-1980 The Jurisprudence of Larceny:An Historical Inquiry and Interest Analysis Kathleen F. Brickey Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr Part of the Criminal Law Commons Recommended Citation Kathleen F. Brickey, The Jurisprudence of Larceny:An Historical Inquiry and Interest Analysis, 33 Vanderbilt Law Review 1101 (1980) Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol33/iss5/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vanderbilt Law Review by an authorized editor of Scholarship@Vanderbilt Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The Jurisprudence of Larceny: An Historical Inquiry and Interest Analysis Kathleen F. Brickey* I. INTRODUCTION The principle of harm is an essential component of criminal jurisprudence.1 It is important as both an element of crime2 and a measure of appropriate punishment.3 In a general sense harm im- plies infringement or destruction of cognizable interests," but the concept must be given more specific content if it is to assume a functional role in the development of coherent theory. As the no- tions of harm and protected interests are interdependent, defini- tion of the harm perceived to result from criminal conduct ulti- mately rests on determination of the legal interest sought to be * Professor of Law, Washington University. A.B., 1965, J.D., 1968, University of Ken- tucky. The author is grateful to Richard H. Helmholz, Professor of Law and Professor of History at Washington University, for his thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this Article.