NCJ Number
208794
Journal
Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: 2005 Pages: 7-17
Date Published
2005
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This British study used recorded crime data to investigate the interactions among housing, area type, and burglary and repeat burglary.
Abstract
Data on the incidence of domestic burglary were obtained from Merseyside Police. The data for each offense consisted of victim's address, grid reference of the offense, offense date, victim's name, time of the offense, type of housing involved, offender's point of entry, and means of entry. The dataset consisted of 72,314 burglaries committed between April 1, 1995, and April 1, 2000. Of these, 6,338 were repeat burglaries (burglaries at the same property within 1 year of each other). The study found that without regard to the socioeconomic characteristics of the areas examined, flats and semidetached houses were at greatest risk for burglary, followed by terraced housing and then detached houses. When considering the various socioeconomic characteristics of an area, however, detached housing in more deprived areas had seven times the risk of being burglarized compared with such housing in the most affluent areas. Further, detached housing in poorer areas was almost three times the risk for burglary compared with terraced housing in these areas. In addition, the risk of a detached house being revictimized was over 20 times greater in the most deprived areas compared with affluent areas. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed, including the possibility that offenders consider detached houses in poorer areas to be an indication of relative affluence. 9 tables, 4 notes, and 20 references