2015 Volume 53 Issue 1 Pages 1-20
House burglaries are one of the most serious volume crimes, however, only a few studies have focused on the relationship between the characteristics of house burglars and the style of their offenses. The current study examined differences between repeat offenders committing house burglaries and non-repeat offenders, in terms of offenders' profiles and offence characteristics. Data of house burglars acting alone (N=440) consisting of repeat offenders with arrest records for house burglaries acting alone (n=196) and non-repeat offenders (n=244) were analyzed by comparing characteristics between repeat and non-repeat offenders. Results indicated that variables relating to social maladjustment such as low academic background and unemployment among others were significantly more frequent in repeat offenders than in non-repeat offenders. Furthermore, 18 offense variables were analyzed through correspondence analysis to describe relationships among the variables, which identified two axes; “criminality” and “traceability.” The object score of criminality was significantly correlated with the number of arrests for house burglaries (Spearman's ρ=-.46, p<.001). Finally, a model for discriminating repeat offenders from non-repeat offenders was developed using logistic regression analysis. Receiver operating characteristics indicated that the model had moderate accuracy (AUC=.80).
