1
Introduction
Matt Tonkin and Amy Burrell
The extent, scope, and impact of property crime
The vast majority of crimes reported by the public and recorded by the police are property-related offences, such as burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, and other theft (see below). This does, however, tend to get forgotten in an era where media (and sometimes even academic) discourse is so heavily focused on violent, sexual, and ā more recently ā terrorism-related offences. A quick look at crime statistics around the world confirms the predominance of property crime over other forms of offending. In England and Wales, for example, two out of every three offences recorded by the police are related to the illegal acquisition of property, and 80% of crimes reported in the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)1 are property-related (Office for National Statistics, 2016). In the United States, 86% of crime recorded is property-related (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2016), as is 77% of crime in New Zealand (New Zealand Police, 2017) and approximately 95% of crime in South Africa (Statistics South Africa, 2017).
These crimes have a significant impact on victims, the criminal justice system, and wider society. In financial terms, property crime (including burglary, robbery, fraud, and theft offences) is estimated to cost Ā£21 billion per year in England and Wales (Heeks, Reed, Tafsiri, & Prince, 2018). From a psychological point of view, the loss of irreplaceable personal items and the sense of violation that occurs as a result of property crime can lead to sometimes long-lasting psychological effects for victims, ranging from fear and anxiety to anger and depression (e.g. Beaton, Cook, Kavanagh, & Herrington, 2000; Button, Lewis, & Tapley, 2014; Chon & Wilson, 2016; Shapland & Hall, 2007).
Property crime, therefore, poses a significant (but often ignored) problem for law enforcement agencies around the world. Indeed, there is evidence that this problem is growing; for example, the most recent set of figures suggests that property-related offending in England and Wales has increased over the last year, with burglary up 9%, robbery up 33%, and vehicle-related theft up 17% (Office for National Statistics, 2018). It is, therefore, vital that researchers, criminal justice practitioners, students, and the general public give due attention to property crime. This includes understanding the nature, causes, and consequences of property crime, developing methods to catch property crime offenders, and considering how such crimes can be better prevented in the future. As editors, we hope that this book can contribute to this challenging task.
The background to this book and its overarching aims
The origins of this edited collection can be traced back to a British Psychological Society seminar series organised by the editors and Professor Ray Bull in 2015. During the course of this seminar series, we had the pleasure of meeting a range of practitioners and academics who share our passion for understanding and preventing property crime in its various forms (many of whom have contributed to this book). During the course of this seminar series, it became apparent that there were a wide range of professionals with expertise related to property crime, but this expertise had not been captured in a comprehensive way by existing texts. While several key texts exist that have revolutionised understanding of property crime and have significantly influenced our thinking, these books have necessarily been forced to focus on either a single crime type or a single aspect of the criminal justice process (e.g. Bennett & Wright, 1984; Canter & Alison, 2000; Corbett, 2003; Matthews, 2002; Mawby, 2001; Wright & Decker, 1994, 1997). As such, we could not find any existing texts that dealt comprehensively with the issue of property crime, ranging from how and why property crime is committed and how these crimes are investigated and prosecuted through to how we prevent future crimes and rehabilitate offenders. Given the prevalence and significant costs of property crime highlighted above (and elsewhere in this book), this seemed like an important gap in the literature worth filling.
The overarching aim of this book is, therefore, to provide a comprehensive overview of property crime, ranging from offender crime scene behaviour and motivations for offending through to investigation and rehabilitation. More specifically, this book aims to:
1. Highlight the extent, nature, and impact of property crime.
2. Give an overview of offender behaviour, motivations, and the decision-making that underpins a range of property-related offences.
3. Outline the processes and challenges involved in investigating and prosecuting property offences from a range of perspectives, including crime analysts, police detectives, forensic crime scene investigators, and prosecutors.
4. Discuss how criminal justice agencies are working to break the cycle of offending.
5. Outline new and emerging areas of research and practice that have the potential to enhance our understanding of, and ability to, successfully detect and prosecute property crime in the future.
The structure of this book
The content of this book is organised into three sections. The first section (āThe Offenceā) contains four chapters that outline why people commit property crime, how such offences are committed, and the impact of these offences on victims. In Chapter 2, Ashmore-Hills and Burrell outline the range of offences that come under the umbrella of property crime and present the working definition of property crime used in this book. They also outline the international prevalence of various forms of property crime and consider how property crime has evolved over time. In Chapter 3, Tonkin draws on theoretical and empirical work, offender testimonies, and case examples to illustrate the various pathways into property crime and motivations for offending. This chapter will chart the development, maintenance, and desistance of property crime across the lifespan and the various factors that impact these processes. Chapter 4 (by Nee and Meenaghan) explores offender decision-making during the commission of crime, focusing on residential burglary as an example. This chapter traces the development of offender decision-making research over five decades, starting with early offender interview studies in the 1970s through to the advent and application of virtual reality technology in the current day. The final chapter in this section (Chapter 5, by OāBrien and Burrell) discusses property crime from the perspective of victims, which is a perspective often ignored in academic literature. This chapter outlines the significant short- and long-term impacts of property crime, which include physical, financial, and psychological effects.
The second section of the book (āInvestigation and Prosecutionā) contains six chapters that focus on the work of police and prosecutors in investigating, detecting, and prosecuting property crime offenders. In Chapter 6, Davies outlines a form of analysis called crime linkage that is commonly used to help catch and convict serial property crime offenders. This chapter highlights the theoretical underpinnings of crime linkage and explores the empirical literature that has investigated how property crimes can be behaviourally linked. In Chapter 7, Fumagalli and Johnson outline seminal theories that explain why crime clusters in space and time (e.g. Rational Choice Theory, Routine Activity Theory, and Crime Pattern Theory) and ā utilising case examples ā explain how these theories are put into practise to tackle property crime (e.g. using methods such as geographical profiling). In Chapter 8, two crime analysts from two different countries, Walsh (UK) and Weeks (New Zealand), outline the contribution that crime intelligence analysis makes to the investigation of property crime. Drawing on real-life case examples, the chapter outlines the process underpinning crime analysis and the various types of analysis that might be undertaken to support ongoing police investigations, as well as the challenges that analysts face. Chapter 9 (van der Kemp and Deten) describes how forensic evidence is found, selected, and collected by crime scene investigators and explains how this process is influenced by many factors at many different levels (e.g. factors associated with the individual investigator, procedural factors, and organisational factors). There is a particular focus on how crime scene investigators make decisions and the various factors that can influence (and even bias) their decision-making. Chapter 10 is written by Hutchinson, a police detective with 20 years of experience. In this chapter, Hutchinson outlines the political history that has shaped how property offences have been investigated by the police (both historically and currently) and outlines how the police (perhaps unwittingly) utilise principles from the behavioural sciences to understand and detect property crime offenders. In Chapter 11, Andrews ā a solicitor for the Crown Prosecution Service ā explains the legal frameworks that govern the prosecution of property offences and uses case examples to illustrate the various challenges that must be overcome to successfully prosecute property crime offenders.
The third section of this book (āPrevention, Intervention, and Treatmentā) focuses on how to re...
