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Residential Burglary: How the Urban Environment and Our Lifestyles Play a Contributing Role, Third Edition

NCJ Number
237551
Author(s)
George F. Rengert Ph.D.; Elizabeth Groff Ph.D.
Date Published
2011
Length
252 pages
Annotation
This book explores residential burglary.
Abstract
This book draws on in-depth interviews with admitted burglars to provide an overview of residential burglary. The book is comprised of eight chapters. Chapter 1 describes the sources of data used to address residential burglary and introduces the most important and prevalent theories used in previous research. Chapter 2 examines what is on a burglar's mind when he considers whether to commit a burglary and when he chooses a house to burglarize. Chapter 3 discusses time and the opportunities and limits it places on both burglar and victim. Chapter 4 investigates how burglaries are fit into space and the importance of perceptions of space in the burglary process. Chapter 5 describes how burglars select a home to burglarize. Chapter 6 reviews information collected from Greenwich, CT to contrast houses that have been burglarized with those that have not. Chapter 7 describes from the burglars' perspectives some of the "nuts and bolts" techniques used by burglars depending on experience and the reasons for their use, including considerations about home architecture and the burglary process; suggestions are provided regarding how to control the problem of residential burglary. Chapter 8 discusses changes in lifestyles and communities, and how these changes will affect future patterns of residential burglary. Tables, figures, and bibliography