What Burglars Said about Target Selection and Co-offender

The primary aim of situational crime prevention is to alter the environment in which crimes typically occur, rather than to change offender’s criminal behavior through treatment and rehabilitation. This approach assumes that individuals actually choose to commit crime as a result of rational decision-making, weighing potential costs and rewards. During the last several decades, there has been a proliferation of experimental schemes designed to prevent burglaries and other street crimes by altering the situation in which they occur. However, many crime prevention approaches are derived from law enforcement practitioners and arm-chaired academics, which in many cases are not effective to reduce criminal incidents in local communities. Little is known about the way in which property offenders think and act in potentially criminal situation. Most of the previous research tends to focus on the characteristics of offenders. The current research is a study of burglars and property crimes, focusing on how offenders go about their business. It aims to have a better understanding of offenders and to reflect their voices and perceptions on localized crime prevention efforts for local law enforcement agencies.