Looting is the act and result of looting. This verb, for its part, is linked to subtracting everything that is in a place, seizing things in a violent way.
For example: "The Justice investigates the looting that occurred last week in the center of the city" , "The rebel troops were responsible for the looting" , "A Spanish merchant was the victim of looting on Thursday night . "
Those who commit looting indiscriminately and illegitimately seize other people's belongings. Looting generally consists of entering an enclosure and taking as much as possible in the shortest possible time. This type of crime usually takes place in the context of armed conflicts, natural catastrophes or situations of social lack of control and anarchy.
Another name for looting is looting , and violence is usually accompanied by violence, either as a form of provocation or as a result of the adrenaline that emerges from the aforementioned situations; on the other hand, it can also occur in a peaceful way, when the thief takes advantage of the lack of attention of the security personnel of a store, for example.
In its origins, the term looting was used to designate the assault on small villages, towns or cities, and not necessarily in times of war or external confrontations, but could also describe the theft that an inhabitant carried out on their own soil.
In ancient times, looting was assault on the towns that developed the military forces. On August 24, 410, to cite a historical example, the Visigoths entered Rome and began a looting that lasted for three days and included rapes and murders.
The Phoenicians and the Vikings are two peoples that are often associated with the activity of pillage and, in the case of the former, with piracy. Roman military laws authorized looting: when a bloodstained spear was raised, it was time to begin the attack. Throughout the Middle Ages, looting was not considered illicit; it was not until 1590 that King Henry IV of France established the 24-hour limit per city for this activity.
In such moments of social and economic crisis, it is very contradictory that the people supposedly affected by the problems of their country have no qualms about destroying other people's stores and depriving their owners of their products. Often times, criminals - mostly improvised - try to justify their actions by ensuring that the merchants affected are participants in the monopoly; However, this is not true in most cases, as looting is characterized by lack of control, disproportionate violence and impulsiveness: no shop window is spared, regardless of the convictions or social status of the owner.
Finally, it should be noted that looting is also often spoken of with reference to the seizure or theft of works of art and objects of historical value made by people, companies or countries to keep wealth that does not correspond to them. This action is also known by other names, such as looting or archaeological and artistic looting , and is usually carried out by people who have specific knowledge or well-defined interests, either as a hobby or the intention of selling the products to knowledgeable people.