Coping With Burglary

This book contains the papers given at a workshop organised by the Home Office (England and Wales) on the subject of residential burglary. This is a topic of much public concern, and I welcome the Home Office initiative in mounting the workshop. The contributors were all researchers and crim inologists who have made a special study of burglary, and their brief was to consider the implications of their work for policy. As a policeman, I find their work of particular interest and relevance at this time when police per formance, as traditionally measured by the clear-up rate, is not keeping pace with the increase in the numbers of burglaries coming to police attention. The finding that increases in burglary are more reflective of the public's reporting habits than of any significant rise in the actual level of burglary helps with perspective but offers little comfort to policemen. The 600/0 in crease in the official statistics since 1970 is accompanied by a proportionate increase in police work in visiting victims, searching scenes of crime, writing crime reports, and completing other documentation. In some forces the point has been reached where available detective time is so taken up by the volume of visits and reports that there is little remaining for actual in vestigation. But because of the random and opportunist nature of burglary, it cannot be said with any confidence that increasing investigative capacity would make a significant and lasting impact on the overall burglary figures.

This book contains the papers given at a workshop organised by the Home Office (England and Wales) on the subject of residential burglary. This is a topic of much public concern, and I welcome the Home Office initiative in mounting the workshop. The contributors were all researchers and crim inologists who have made a special study of burglary, and their brief was to consider the implications of their work for policy. As a policeman, I find their work of particular interest and relevance at this time when police per formance, as traditionally measured by the clear-up rate, is not keeping pace with the increase in the numbers of burglaries coming to police attention. The finding that increases in burglary are more reflective of the public's reporting habits than of any significant rise in the actual level of burglary helps with perspective but offers little comfort to policemen. The 600/0 in crease in the official statistics since 1970 is accompanied by a proportionate increase in police work in visiting victims, searching scenes of crime, writing crime reports, and completing other documentation. In some forces the point has been reached where available detective time is so taken up by the volume of visits and reports that there is little remaining for actual in vestigation. But because of the random and opportunist nature of burglary, it cannot be said with any confidence that increasing investigative capacity would make a significant and lasting impact on the overall burglary figures.

Domestic burglary has fallen significantly over the past 20 years in many countries, but still remains a high volume crime. On top of substantial financial loss and property damage, burglary also leads to high levels of anxiety and fear of crime. The research presented in this book represents the first systematic study of what actually works in security interventions against burglary, with cross-sectional data on different regions and socio-economic population groups. This work provides an overview of the scope of the problem and what can be done about it, drawing on extensive research evidence from projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (SDAI), and other sources. It reports detailed findings about which interventions are most effective for different population groups and how these measures can be implemented. It includes burglary prevention advice for homeowners, law enforcement and other public agencies, and makes recommendations for future research. In addition to being relevant to concerned citizens, police, policy-makers and crime prevention practitioners, this book will also be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, particularly those working on security and crime prevention, as well as urban planning and public policy.

This book evaluates the newest efforts and initiative aimed at preventing burglary, discusses their merits and short- comings, and suggests how improvements might be incorporated in burglary prevention programs.

This comprehensive edited volume contains analysis and explanation of the nature, extent, patterns and causes of over 40 different forms of crime, in each case drawing attention to key contemporary debates and social and criminal justice responses.

"This book contains a selection of papers, which were presented and discussed at the first GERN Summer School for PhD students held in September 2012 at Ghent University, Belgium"--Backcover.

This book describes the results of a six-nation study of how criminal justice agencies in England and Wales, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden have reacted to high crime rates and punitiveness. The book details how various solutions have been adopted, involving diversion of cases from courts, increases in financial penalties imposed by police or prosecutors without full court hearings and the introduction in some countries of "administrative offences".