Crime & Crime & Property
Decision-making by house burglars: offenders' perspectives
Research has rarely asked offenders for their perspectives on the crimes they commit. This study asked burglars to describe decisions they had taken when planning and carrying out domestic burglary. They also offered views on the deterrent value of various interventions.
Title: Decision-making by house burglars: offenders'
perspectives
Authors: Ian Hearnden and Christine Magill
Series: Home Office Findings 249
Number of pages: 6
Date published: November 2004
Key points
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The main reasons given by interviewees for starting burgling were the influence of friends, the need to fund drug use and boredom.
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Need of money for drugs was the main reason given for more recent burglaries.
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The likely 'yield' was a burglar's key consideration when deciding which house to target.
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Offenders were more likely to base decisions about the attractiveness of a property on beliefs that the occupants had goods worth stealing than on structural aspects of the building.
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Offenders were most likely to take cash, jewellery, laptops and credit cards.
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Over two-thirds of the sample said they had returned to a property they had burgled before and taken items from it on a second occasion.
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Over half of the sample knew who lived in the property they were burgling.
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Interviewees did not believe burglary to be risky, especially once they had disposed of the goods taken.
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Last update: 02 November 2004