M. Malicious Injury to Property and Related Offenses

• Library: The Criminal Law of South Carolina (SCBar) (2014 Ed.)

M. Malicious Injury to Property and Related Offenses

There are a number of specialized offenses against property located toward the end of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the South Carolina Code, several of which proscribe malicious injury to property of various types. Real property is protected by S.C. Code Ann. § 16-11-520 (2003 and Supp. 2012). Protection for all types of personal property from malicious injury is provided by the statute referring specifically to animals, which provides in pertinent part: "It is unlawful for a person to wilfully and maliciously cut, shoot, main, wound, or otherwise injure or destroy [any animal] . . . is guilty of a" felony if the value of the property lost is worth more than $2,000. S.C. Code Ann. § 16-11-510 (2003 and Supp. 2012).

Both the personal property and the real property statutes were amended, effective April 7, 1998, and again in 2010, and each provides...