The city studied was Canberra, where suburbs are more clearly marked than in other cities due to the unique geography and layout of the neighborhoods. Designed as autonomous units, each suburb contains its own group of shops and community structures, and many have schools and a quota of public housing. Highways and well-vegetated areas border many suburbs. Some of the barriers between suburbs are as much as 100 meters from the nearest property in the next suburb. Data provided by the Australian Federal Police contained details of every recorded burglary in the Australian Capital Territory for 1999 and 2000, along with addresses of every person arrested for burglary during this period. It was possible to identify 357 records in which an offender residence could be matched to the targeted residential property. Seventy-seven percent of residential burglars committed offenses in suburbs other than their home neighborhoods. In 58 percent of the burglaries, offenders traveled across more than one suburb boundary from their home address to commit the offense. There is thus no evidence from this study that burglars are inhibited in their travel patterns between suburbs in Canberra. This suggests that expenditure to increase the boundary effect of the exterior of a suburb or neighborhood against external offenders would largely be wasted money. 2 figures and 19 references