Burglary -- History, Definition, and Hypothetical Case

Burglary -- History, Definition, and Hypothetical Case

According to Common Law, burglary was identified as the breaking and entering the premises of another person's inhabitance with the purpose of committing a crime there. It can thus be associated with ideas like the act of entering a person's house without his or her permission and the act of committing a crime at the respective location.

Individuals perceived a person's house as the place where the respective individual could retreat and feel happy with his or her position -- a place that could practically be identified as his or her castle. "It is the enjoyment of this castle, free from the midnight terror of an intruder, that the outlawing of burglary was designed to protect." (Schultz, 2009, p. 70) Common law thus promoted the idea of burglary being the breach of security of a person's house rather than a crime against his or her property.

A situation that is likely to be qualified as a burglary needs to meet a series of requirements: it needs to involve breaking, entering, a person's house, it needs to happen during the night, and it needs to involve the criminal/s wanting to commit a crime. The idea of burglary appeared around 1450 and it came to promote the concept that a felony could be registered as long as an offender simply stepped inside a building at night without the owner's permission, even if the respective individual did not have the intention of committing a crime. "Burglary of the 15th Century had two elements that seem unusual to us now. Firstly, it was an essential requirement that someone was in the building at the time the burglary took place and secondly, the burglary had to take place at night." (History of Burglary) A person who entered one's house during the day was only guilty of trespassing and was thus not a felon.

Matters regarding burglary in common law did not change until the Theft Act of 1968, when the idea that it had to happen during the night was no longer associated with burglary. The actus rea associated with burglary involves trespassing on someone's property and the mens rea involves doing so with the intention to perform a crime.

Burglary has experienced significant change through the years and while it initially involved the perpetrator having to force his or her way into a building in order for his or her action to be considered burglary. Modern definition no longer imply that the felon needs to force his or her way onto someone else's property, as simply entering it through a unlocked door with the purpose of committing a felony or a misdemeanor qualifies as burglary (BURGLARY).