Burglary Crime Scene Rationality of a Select Group of Non-Apprehend Burglars

Burglary continues to yield low detection rates, and although thecharacteristics of how burglaries are committed has been investigated in some detail,less is known about how burglars avoid detection generally and in particular theactivities of non-apprehended burglars. To investigate this issue, one can at least inprinciple investigate the special case of burglars who claim to have avoidedapprehension in spite of the fact that they have committed a large number of burglariesover time. The approach taken here was to thematically analyze the interview data from aprevious study comparing the crime scene movements of a small group of non-apprehendedburglars with experienced but apprehended burglars. The results here from a thematicanalysis of that previous study revealed marked differences in the rationales betweenthe experienced, apprehended burglars and the experienced non-apprehended burglars whenimplementing different crime scene behaviors. A series of techniques and strategiesemerges, which appear to aid in avoiding detection around the burglary scene and aresummarized with implications discussed