An Epidemiological Study of Burglary Offenders: Trends and Predictors of Self-Reported Arrests for Burglary in the United States, 2002-2013

• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Author: Michael G. Vaughn,Brian B. Boutwell,Erik J. Nelson,Christopher P. Salas-Wright,Matt DeLisi
• Date: 01 March 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X16670178
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X16670178

International Journal of

Offender Therapy and

Comparative Criminology

2018, Vol. 62(4) 1107 –1127

© The Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/0306624X16670178

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Article

An Epidemiological Study of

Burglary Offenders: Trends

and Predictors of

Self-Reported Arrests for

Burglary in the United

States, 2002-2013

Matt DeLisi1, Erik J. Nelson2, Michael G. Vaughn3,

Brian B. Boutwell3, and Christopher P. Salas-Wright4

Abstract

Burglary is serious property crime with a relatively high incidence and has been shown

to be variously associated with other forms of criminal behavior. Unfortunately, an

epidemiological understanding of burglary and its correlates is largely missing from

the literature. Using public-use data collected between 2002 and 2013 as part of the

National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the current study compared

those who self-reported burglary arrest in the prior 12 months with and without

criminal history. The unadjusted prevalence estimates of self-reported burglary arrest

were statistically different for those with a prior arrest history (4.7%) compared with

those without an arrest history (0.02%) which is a 235-fold difference. Those with an

arrest history were more likely to report lower educational attainment, to have lower

income, to have moved more than 3 times in the past 5 years, and to use alcohol,

tobacco, illicit drugs, and engage in binge drinking. Moreover, those with prior arrest

histories were younger and more likely to be male. There is considerable heterogeneity

among burglars with criminal history indicating substantially greater behavioral risk.

Keywords

burglary, burglars, epidemiology, criminal career, criminal history

1Iowa State University, Ames, USA

2Indiana University Bloomington, USA

3Saint Louis University, MO, USA

4Boston University, MA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Matt DeLisi, Iowa State University, 203A East Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070, USA.

Email: delisi@iastate.edu

670178IJOXXX10.1177/0306624X16670178International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative CriminologyDeLisi et al.

research-article2016

1108 International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 62(4)

Introduction

Burglary, the unlawful entry of a residence or business to perpetrate theft or some

other felony, is a serious property offense that commonly is punished by prison con-

finement and produces tens of millions of dollars annually in direct, indirect, and

intangible costs (Wickramasekera, Wright, Elsey, Murray, & Tubeuf, 2015). In the

United States, burglary is a moderately common crime with an official incidence of

nearly two million incidents annually according to the Uniform Crime Reports (Federal

Bureau of Investigation, 2014) and three million victimizations according to the

National Crime Victimization Survey (Truman & Langton, 2015). Arrest and victim-

ization data on burglary are a fraction of the true incidence of burglary incidents given

that most crimes are not reported, do not result in arrest, and are not cataloged by

national survey. Burglary is associated with a range of negative consequences for bur-

glary victims including loss of property and damage to one’s home, emotional trauma,

stressful hypervigilance due to the violation of privacy, increased anxiety, depression,

fear of crime, and others (Angel et al., 2014; Brown & Harris, 1989; Chon & Wilson,

2016; Maguire, 1980; Maguire & Bennett, 1982).1

Like all criminal offenses, there is substantial heterogeneity among burglary offend-

ers in terms of their broader criminal career (Bouhana, Johnson, & Porter, 2016;

Hargreaves & Francis, 2014; Shover, 1996), motivation for perpetrating burglary

(Maguire, 1988; Wright, Logie, & Decker, 1995), geographic and temporal issues

relating to burglary (Johnson, 2008; Johnson & Bowers, 2004; Kocsis & Irwin, 1997),

and the association of burglary to other forms of crime (Fox & Farrington, 2012;

Shover, 1996; Snook, 2004; Steffensmeier, Harris, & Painter-Davis, 2015).2 Thus, bur-

glary can denote a one-off adolescent prank by a juvenile offender, an opportunistic

offense by an offender enmeshed in an antisocial lifestyle, or a carefully planned

instrumental crime (Shover, 1973). Notwithstanding this variance; however, the typi-

cal burglary is part of a constellation of criminal offenses that center on property viola-

tions (e.g., theft; auto theft; possessing, receiving, or selling stolen property; fencing)

that are instrumentally related to substance use (Cromwell, Olson, Avary, & Marks,

1991; Hochstetler, 2001; Roach, 2007; Schneider, 2003; Wright & Decker, 1996).

Prior research has identified several characteristics of burglars and their burglary

offense behavior utilizing diverse sources of data and analytical techniques. First,

there are reciprocal relationships between drug use and burglary with qualitative stud-

ies showing that burglars sometimes instrumentally perpetrate burglary to obtain

goods to sell or trade for drugs and sometimes consume drugs to prepare themselves

for burglary (Bennett & Wright, 1984b; Cromwell, Olson, & Avary, 1991, 1993;

Cromwell, Olson, Avary, & Marks, 1991; Hochstetler, 2001; Shover, 1973; Tunnell,

1992). Although drug use is a risk factor for all sorts of crimes (Bennett, Holloway, &

Farrington, 2008; DeLisi, Vaughn, Salas-Wright, & Jennings, 2015), violent crimes

cannot usually yield material gain in the same way that burglary can.

Second, although burglars decide to perpetrate the criminal act prior to entering a

home or business, the motivation to do so has been shown to be influenced by peers

and informal socializing and by the immediate need for property or money (Bennett &