Inside the mind of a criminal

Psychologists and criminologists have spent years trying to work out what makes burglars tick and how to combat them, writes DIANA McCURDY.

Many burglars feel little guilt or remorse, says Corrections Department strategic analysis manager Peter Johnston. Research shows they are typically egocentric, seek immediate gratification and don't care how their behaviour affects others.

"It is a very rapid, low-energy, low-commitment way of achieving ends. If you want something then it's easier to steal it than to go out and work for it," says Johnston.

"They don't think about the fact that a lot of stolen things can't be replaced. They don't think about the uneasiness and the fear that burglary inflicts upon the whole community."

When challenged about their crimes, many offenders provide pat justifications. "I've heard burglars say things like: 'They've got insurance - when I rip off their stuff, they get a whole lot of new stuff and I get their stuff. It's a win-win situation - it's almost a victimless crime."'

Burglars often progress through a scale of offending, says Corrections Department senior research adviser Dr Nick Wilson. In their early teenage years, they steal things they can carry and sell easily. As they get older and have access to transport, they start taking larger items and become more savvy in their approach.

"There have even been burglars who take video cameras with them and videotape the inside of the house so they can show the videotape and say: 'Would you like to have this or that?"

Commercial burglars tend to look down on domestic burglars, seeing commercial burglary as a victimless crime. On the next rung down, career domestic burglars are often disparaging of their amateur opportunist and drug-addicted counterparts.

New Zealand's burglary rate is increasing for the first time in a decade. Although the increase is small and the figures are a long way off the high of 103,000 recorded in 1992, it is an ominous sign.

Exactly why the 10-year-decline in burglary has stopped is a moot point. The decline was attributed - in part, at least - to the introduction of more frontline police staff. It is possible crime has just reached a natural plateau.

Police believe most burglars aren't driven by poverty. After all, New Zealand's unemployment rate (4.3 per cent) is one of the lowest in the OECD.

"I would say the number of people who do burglaries because they have to put food on the table for their kids would be virtually nil," says Constable Peter Reynolds, of the Mt Wellington Burglary Squad.

"Most of them are just mongrels and that's what they do. They just do it to get stuff - they want a TV, or they want some money to get some drugs."

Burglary is a rite of passage for many New Zealand teenagers. For some it is just a phase, for others it is a stepping stone to a criminal lifestyle.

Criminal Justice Group research has found that offending peaks at the age of 15. About half of the burglaries Reynolds' squad deals with are committed by juveniles - the youngest he has caught was 12.

Career burglars make up a large proportion of the rest. Some commit dozens, even hundreds of crimes a year.

"They're either inside for it or they're doing it," Reynolds says.

For most burglars, however, the crime is just part of their criminal repertoire. Tracking burglars' progression through different crimes is fascinating - and disturbing - stuff. With every crime they commit, their confidence grows, Wilson says.

Typically, they start off burgling houses during the day when nobody is home. Some, as they become more confident, then move on to burgling at night.

"Then they've burgled a place at night and they thought it was empty but there was someone home. And they talk about the rush that gave them, the power, creeping through the house. It's quite a rush because people don't know they are there."

For some, that sense of power takes on more sinister overtones. Once the rush subsides, they start ruminating about what they could have done.

"They are placing themselves in a very intimate environment in which people are vulnerable," Wilson says.

"That can lead to offences such as rape. It can also lead to offences such as aggravated robbery, because they get disturbed and they feel they have to defend themselves or they believe they can gain more by intimidating someone while they're vulnerable.

"They may rape someone. They may take someone's cash card and force the pin number out of them. It's all about that feeling of power when they are in someone's abode and they feel the person's at a disadvantage because they have searched the place out and they realise they are alone."

No two burglars are alike. Some are opportunists, seeking easy targets to fund a drug habit. Others are careful planners who treat burglary as a career. Some even set five-minute time limits when they break into a home.

Often burglars have a substance-abuse problem, but the link with the crime is complex, says Victoria University criminologist Samantha Lundrigan.

"Many think people will carry out burglaries to fund their habit, but it has actually been found that sometimes burglars will use drugs to get the bottle to carry out the burglary and calm their nerves and so on.

"Some offenders say that if they take uppers, say speed or something like that, it really heightens their awareness, and makes them better - they say - at multi-tasking and carrying out their crimes."

Rehabilitating burglars is fraught with difficulty. Dishonesty crimes such as burglary have a high rate of reoffending. More than half of the offenders released from prison in 2002 were reconvicted within 12 months - after two years, that figure climbs to more than 70 per cent.

The problem says Lundrigan, is that burglary is usually just one part of a criminal lifestyle. Most burglars have a history of other crimes such as car theft, violence and drugs.

"They associate with antisocial others, they have an antisocial personality, they have antisocial beliefs such as they have been hard done by and people are only rich because they have been more successful at stealing.

"You often have to change these very pervasive beliefs."

Compounding this is the strong belief among burglars that they won't get caught. With the resolution rate for burglary at 16.5 per cent - an improvement on the 11 per cent of the late 1990s - most crimes are never solved.

However, Corrections' Johnston disputes the idea that burglars believe there is no chance of getting caught.

"The sentence of imprisonment in itself is a form of deterrent and incapacitation, and I don't think we should underestimate those things. Burglars would be a hell of a lot more prolific if the threat of imprisonment wasn't there. Most burglars take considerable care to avoid detection."