Robbery involves stealing something of value from someone through the use of force or threats of the potential use of force. Not every theft can be classified as a robbery since some do not occur through the use of force or even threats. For example, if one is riding a crowded train and, in the chaos, therein their phone is silently picked from their pockets without their knowledge and vanishes, that can be classified as theft but not robbery since no force was used whatsoever. However, if the victim would have noticed what was happening and tried to hold onto their phone and the thief threatened them with a knife in hand, then it would turn into a robbery since they have been threatened with the use of a weapon. Treason refers to the act of betraying one’s country in a way that compromises the country’s sovereignty e.g. planning to kill or killing the president, or illegally exposing the country’s secrets, while espionage is the act of spying on a country for another in order to secretly obtain sensitive information about that country, usually political or military information ( Hatfield, 2017). If a soldier in the US army was paid by Russian criminals to give classified information on the protection of the White House, they would be charged with treason. This is because they would have illegally released sensitive information about their country that could compromise the safety of the president and the nation’s stability. However, if this crime was committed by a Russian working with the criminal elements who came into the country, secretly found the information and sent it back to Russia, the individual would be charged with espionage and not reason. This is because they were caught spying on one country, which was not their home country. The main elements of this crime is that at the time of providing the material support to terrorist organization, one must have had knowledge that they are/ were a terrorist organization or supporting terrorist activities and the individual or organization still went ahead to willfully provide assistance to the terrorists (Kam, 2006). The crime is quite clear on what can be taken as unacceptable conduct which is knowingly providing assistance to a terrorist organization. The only issue the act does not expressly cater for is coerced assistance where the individual was forced to assist the terrorist organization against their will.
References
Hatfield, J. (2017). An ethical defense of treason by means of espionage. Intelligence and National Security , 32:2, 195-207, DOI: 10.1080/02684527.2016.1248571
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Kam C. Wong (2006). The USA Patriot Act: A Policy of Alienation, 12 MICH. J. RACE & L. 161 . https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjrl/vol12/iss1/5
