Suburban Burglary: A Tale of 2 Suburbs

by George F. Rengert

Unique in approach and engrossing in presentation, this book explores the elements of suburban residential burglary. In this revision, the chapters have been updated and a new chapter included on how burglars select their homes. The authors draw on in-depth interviews with admitted burglars as well as their own criminal justice experience to identify the social, psychological and environmental factors that encourage burglary. They show how the social regulation of individuals time, the ways in which postwar suburban planning and architecture conflict with current lifestyles, and reactive techniques of supervising convicted burglars all contribute to the crime. The inclusion of the ideas and, often, the actual words of the burglars interviewed brings this material to life, but it is the content itself, with its analytical approach to reducing vulnerability, that makes the text invaluable for all those professionally or personally concerned with the problem.

161 pages, Paperback

First published August 28, 2000

Reviews

[Lisa]

Quick, interesting read on the ecology of crime in the burbs.