Interviewing Burglars Research Findings featured in The Times

In research commissioned by Churchill Home Insurance, Perpetuity Research interviewed 15 convicted burglars to help understand what factors motivate burglary.

Burglars reported enjoying the ‘thrill of the chase’ or the ‘buzz’ of breaking into peoples homes. However the findings revealed that the need for money to fund drug addictions was a major motivation for many burglars, who would steal goods they could sell to buy drugs. Indeed burglars saw burglary as a ‘low risk’ crime that could be a good way of making ‘quick easy money’. Furthermore, burglary was perceived to be more profitable than other crimes such as shoplifting and of less risk due to the lack of security measures such as cctv and alarms in peoples homes. Some reported targeting the homes of friends or family because they knew when their house was empty, what goods they had and the chance that they would not press charges if they were caught.