 The common law generally treated damage to another 's chattels as a civil matter leading only to a right to damages in trespass or nuisance ; in the 18th century , Blackstone stated : " The rights of personal property in possession are liable to two species of injuries : the <unk> [ carrying away ] or deprivation of that possession ; and the abuse or damage of the chattels , while the possession continues in the legal owner . " Blackstone clearly labelled these as " Private Wrongs " in his commentaries , emphasising that property rights were enforced inter partes , and that the State was not necessarily one of the involved parties . In fact , the criminal law only intervened in the case of arson , defining it as " the malicious and wilful burning of the house or outhouses of another man " . This protection extended to barns and even " stacks of corn " . Arson traditionally attracted the death penalty , and had done so in Roman law . 
