November 1, 2004: Why Burglars Offend: New Research

New research, just published, explores the perspectives of offenders on the offences which they commit. Home Office Research Findings no. 249, authored by Ian Hearnden and Christine Magill, is entitled 'Decision-Making By House Burglars: Offenders’ Perspectives'. It describes a study that interviewed burglars in southern England.

The offenders were asked to describe decisions they had taken when planning and carrying out domestic burglary. At the time of the research, offenders’ main motivation for committing residential burglary was the need to fund drug use. The main reasons they gave for starting burgling were the influence of friends, the need to fund drug use and boredom.

Among the key points which emerged from Hearnden and Magill’s research:

• Need of money for drugs was the main reason given for more recent burglaries.

• The likely ‘yield’ was a burglar’s key consideration when deciding which house to target.

• 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.

• Offenders were most likely to take cash, jewelry, laptops and credit cards.

• 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.

• l Over half of the sample knew who lived in the property they were burgling.

• Interviewees did not believe burglary to be risky, especially once they had disposed of the goods taken.

The Research Finding can be downloaded here.