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Time for burglaries

Most people may assume that burglaries occur mostly at night. However, statistics show this is not the case because most burglaries occur during the day. According to the FBI, home break-in / burglary two million home burglaries occur in the United States each year. This means that every 13 seconds a home is broken in to. 30 percent of these burglaries are as a result of open or unlocked windows or doors while 66 percent of all burglaries are residential break-ins. Further statistical analysis still from the FBI records show that the 70 percent of the burglaries recorded in the United States are committed during the day time hours. Day time burglaries are those committed from thirty minutes after sunrise while night burglaries are those committed from thirty minutes after sunset (www.fbi.gov 2010.

There are many reasons as to why burglaries are most common during the day time hours. The three main reasons are: crimes of opportunity, classification of burglaries by law and daytime security. Crimes of opportunity arise when burglary occur because an opportunity has arisen. For instance, leaving the door to a garage open to step in to a shopping mall or exposing valuable items may increase burglary. Classification of burglary by law makes night burglary more serious and call for heavy punishment by law rather than day time burglary. In Australia for instance, night burglary is also called “first degree burglary” while day time burglary is also called “second degree burglary”. The thirds reason as to why burglaries are common during the day time is because of daytime securities are less strict. People in most cases do not pay much attention to home security during the day while compared to night time security (Ormerod 88).

There do exist space and time clusters for homicides, burglaries, robberies, carjacking reports and home invasion. This is in the sense that there are certain areas that have a greater tendency to experience these crimes, hence the clustering of these crimes in terms of space. Further, the timing within which most of these crimes are committed usually acts as a basis upon which they can be clustered. Certain crimes tend to occur more during certain periods or times of the day. When it comes to domestic reports and driving under the influence of alcohol, certain slight patterns are bound to be observed, more so when it comes to clusters in terms of time. For obvious reasons, individuals are more likely to be found engaging in these forms of delinquency in the evening, particularly on weekend nights for the latter infringement. A huge majority of the crimes described above tend to occur at night, mostly due to the fact that the cover of night offers the best chances of escape. This is particularly applicable to crimes such as carjackings which are obviously bound to occur more at night due to the reduced traffic. Others such as domestic reports and homicides are also likely to occur at night (Zeoli, Pizzaro, Grady and Melde 18). When it comes to burglaries, robberies, home invasions and other crimes of opportunity, more cases are likely to be witnessed during the day, due to the reduced security usually present.

Similarly, certain crimes can be clustered in terms of space due to the fact that they are usually more common in certain areas. For instance, cases of robberies, and homicides are usually more common in urban centers or densely populated areas, and can therefore, be classified as urban crimes that tend to occur in certain spaces.

Works Cited

Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reports 2010 Retrieved from HYPERLINK “http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s” http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.2010/property-crime/burglarymain

Ormerod, David. Smith and Hogan Criminal Law, LexisNexis, London. 2005

Zeoli, April, Pizzaro, Jesenia, Grady, Sue and Melde, Christopher. Homicide as InfectiousDisease: Using Public Health Methods to Investigate the Diffusion of Homicide. Journalof Justice (2012): 1-24.