Identified Gaps: Domestic Burglary
| This document attemps to focus on some of the potential gaps that exist surrounding the nature of domestic burglary and its prevention. The evidence supplied here has been obtained from the accumulated reviews of available literature on domestic burglary, and does not claim to be an exhaustive list. Title: Identified Gaps: Domestic Burglary |
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The main objective of this paper is to initiate debate on the following questions.
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What do we know about domestic burglary crime and its prevention?
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What do we not know about domestic burglary crime and its prevention?
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Who is best placed to fill in these gaps with evaluated research?
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How can this information be collected and incorporated into wider good practice?
Nature of Domestic Burglary Offending - Gaps for Evaluation
Destruction domestic burglary
There is little research carried out on destruction burglary (burglaries involving excessive vandalism and property damage). Little is known about the motivations for these events – i.e. conjectures are that it could relate to hate crime, envy of other people’s property, revenge or alternatively just carried out for the excitement of smashing property (with associated risks of being caught). There is one paper on burglary and vandalism in schools which provides some ideas on the potential background and crime prevention issues surrounding this particular crime type. Also little is known about those involving base vandalism, such as soiling or other acts displaying an extreme lack of respect for the owner’s property.
Dominator burglars
Walsh (1980) postulated on the existence of dominator burglars (those who specifically target occupied buildings to terrorise, physically/verbally attack and/or rape the occupants). This is an issue that has not been extensively examined, and may well be counted separately as burglary or violence – so this can often be somewhat of a hidden statistic.
Domestic burglary in rural settings
There has been some examination of the levels of burglary in rural settings. However there has been little specific research on burglary prevention in the rural setting; some general prevention techniques may be transferable to the rural setting but not all. Specifically, there is a research gap concerning the rural burglary crime problem profile. It is unclear how effective general crime prevention techniques for burglary are in the rural setting.
Consideration of factors external to the government initiatives that may have influenced the burglary trend
Offenders sharing burglary skills
Although it is widely acknowledged that burglary skills are shared between offenders (Sutton, Johnston & Lockwood, 1998; Rengert & Wasilchick, 1985; Bennett & Wright, 1984; Maguire, 1982), there has been no apparent attempt to examine the process or mechanisms of this skill transfer (i.e. it could be experience based, informal tips on burglary, demonstration of specific techniques, etc.). Intelligence is needed on how burglars share these skills and where this takes place.
Deteriorating health and emotional state resulting from burglary
The media picked up on the findings presented in Home Office Research Findings paper 198 (Donaldson, 2003) on elderly victims and distraction burglary. This was a small-scale study of older people in sheltered housing – those who were burgled showed greater signs of deteriorating health and emotional state than those not burgled. However, the validity of these findings is questionable as there was a wide spread of age and levels of infirmity that was not controlled for. This, rather than the fact that they had been burgled, was more likely to account for deteriorating health and emotional state in the burgled subgroup. Thornton et al. (2003) conducted a similar yet more robust study, specifically focusing on the impact of distraction burglary on the elderly
Understanding the market forces and characteristics of hot products
There have been attempts to look at products to understand why they have been highly desirable to the market for stolen goods. For example, there are a number of proposed theoretical acronyms that discuss the considered proponents of a hot product, namely CRAVED (Concealable, Removable, Available, Valuable, Enjoyable and Disposable) and VIVA (Value, Inertia – meaning weight and bulkiness, i.e. is it easy to carry?, Visibility, and Access) (Clarke, 1999). However, there have been no empirical attempts at prospectively modelling and scanning for new products that have the potential to become ‘hot’. For example, portable media players became a hot product because they fulfilled a number of criteria on the above theoretical frameworks
Intervention types that have not been fully evaluated
The use of barrier plants to prevent access to windows
Although there is a very good paper outlining the best plants to use – Zahn (1998), there have been limited studies, that have empirically or qualitatively examined the use of plants against burglar
Cocoon hardening/watch
The cocoon watch method was originally implemented in Kirkholt (Forrester et al, 1988). Following a burglary, the neighbouring houses were target-hardened along with the targeted house and were asked to keep an eye on the next-door property to attempt to get a description of the offender when they returned to steal something from the house.
Foliage height reduction
Reduction in the height of foliage in front gardens was attempted in a few cases during the Reduction Burglary Initiative (RBI) scheme evaluation. This was primarily to increase the level of natural surveillance.
Covert tracking devices
Covert tracking devices are rarely used due to the level of expense, but are an ideal way of tracking stolen goods in stolen goods markets. One of the main problems of the use of this method in RBI projects was the combination of discouragement preventive measures such as signs that something had been done in the house to tackle burglary. This resulted in offenders choosing not to target these houses in preference of other non-target-hardened houses (Millie & Hough, 2004). Subsequently goods with tracking devices were rarely found to be stolen.
Outreach work
The primary role of an outreach worker in crime prevention is to engage with hard to reach groups (note this group is not easy to define – see Jones and Newburn, 2001). These groups can be those already persistently involved in offending (chaotic drugs users funding a habit) or young potential offenders (those with socio-demographic characteristics which have been associated with offending or friends of offenders). Engagement leads to referral, where those engaged with are referred onto diversionary schemes or drugs testing orders.
Tenant-based approaches
Within the RBI a few schemes used tenant registration as a way of vetting nuisance residents – i.e. known active burglars. A registration database highlighted tenants who had been involved in offending, drug dealing/production or high level anti-social behaviour.
Anti Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) on conviction
Following the Police Reform Act 2002 and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 orders can now be made on conviction of offences. These orders can be used to ban offenders from specific areas they repeatedly target. It is not known how burglary offenders respond to these ASBO orders.
Dog ownership
Findings from Cromwell et al., 1991 (n=30 offenders), suggest that offenders avoid houses where dogs are present. There has not been an empirical test of this though. This test could be carried out using a similar methodology to the one used in a study by Decker, Wright & Logie (1993). The methodology involved burglary offenders commenting on how attractive they thought properties were for burglary based on photos of houses with varying levels of security.
Getting a copy
Last update: Wednesday, April 18, 2007
