Is Burglary a Violent Crime? An Empirical Investigation of the Armed Career Criminal Act’s Classification of Burglary as a Violent Felony

Abstract

Traditionally considered a non-violent property offense, burglary is nonetheless classified as a violent crime under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). The ACCA, a three-strikes law that provides a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years, is triggered when an offender, who has been previously convicted for a crime classified under the ACCA as either a “violent felony” or “serious drug offense,” is convicted at the federal level for any felony committed while in possession of a firearm. The present study investigated the ACCA’s classification of burglary as violent through analysis of National Crime Victimization Survey data for the period of 2009 to 2014. Results showed that burglary is overwhelmingly a non-violent offense. The national incidence of actual violence or threats of violence during a burglary was 7.9%. At most, 2.7% of burglaries involved actual acts of violence. Legislative reform of the ACCA classification to match the empirical description of burglary is discussed.

Women’s Pathways to Crime: A Heuristic Typology of Offenders

“…For our sample, only a few women were charged using a code that can denote a violent burglary (second degree). Within these few cases, other acts of violence had also been committed and the women were thereby already classified as “aggressive career.” For other cases with charged or admitted burglary and no indication of violence, we deferred to the literature that the vast majority of burglary offenses are nonviolent (Kopp, 2016) and classified women accordingly. For classification purposes, drug crimes (e.g., trafficking/manufacturing) that are sometimes charged as violent were not characterized as harm against a person, in that closer examination of these cases demonstrated no indication of direct harm to a person and no victim/witness indicator in the record.…”

Fear and Loathing of Wall Street: Political Liberalism, Uncertainty, and Threat Management in a Dangerous Economic World

“…Most street crimes including burglaries cause immediate bodily harm (Kopp, 2019). Even in cases when burglaries occur without physical harm, the resultant feeling of victimization triggers cognitive and emotional states similar to those experienced following physical assaults (Janoff-Bulman & Frieze, 1983).…”