ASPORTATION

asportation (as-p<<schwa>>r-tay-sh<<schwa>>n), n. The act of carrying away or removing

(property  or a person). • Asportation is a necessary element of larceny. — Also termed carrying

away.  See  LARCENY.  [Cases:  Kidnapping    1;  Larceny    17;  Robbery    10.  C.J.S.  Kidnapping

• § 1–2; Larceny§ 6; Robbery § 5.] — asport,vb. — asportative,adj.

“There is no larceny unless the personal goods of another which have been taken by trespass

are  ‘carried  away,’  but  this  technical  requirement  may  be  satisfied  by  a  very  slight  movement.

There must be ‘asportation,’ to use the word commonly found in the early cases, but the slightest

start  of  the  carrying-away  movement  constitutes  asportation.”  Rollin  M.  Perkins  &  Ronald  N.

Boyce, Criminal Law 323 (3d ed. 1982).

“To constitute larceny, there must be a taking or caption and carrying away or asportation of

the  property  of  another.  There  is  a  caption  when  the  defendant  takes  possession.  He  takes

possession  when  he  exercises  dominion  and  control  over  the  property.  There  is  an  asportation

when he carries away the property; any carrying away movement, however slight, is sufficient. An

asportation presupposes a prior caption; therefore, there can be no asportation unless there has first

been a caption.” 3 Charles E. Torcia, Wharton’s Criminal Law § 357, at 412–13 (15th ed. 1995).[Blacks Law 8th]