Report: Should Burglary Be Considered a Violent Crime?

A study finds the majority of burglaries do not involve physical violence and rarely present the possibility of physical violence. Burglary is prosecuted as a violent crime under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act, is sentenced in accord with violent crimes under the United States Sentencing Guidelines and is regarded as violent in state law depending on varied circumstances. This study explored the circumstances of burglary and matched them to state and federal laws. It analyzed data from Uniform Crime Reports, the National Crime Victimization Survey and the National Incident Based Reporting System for the 10-year period 1998-2007. Click the title to read Is Burglary a Crime of Violence? An Analysis of National Data 1998-2007 (pdf, 97 pages). (This report, available through the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, is the result of a National Institute of Justice-funded project but was not published by the U.S. Department of Justice.)