Burglary

Burglary is the offense of unlawfully entering a building or other defined structure with the intent to commit a crime inside, most commonly theft, making it distinct from the theft or larceny that may or may not actually be completed once the unlawful entry occurs. The historical common-law definition required breaking and entering a dwelling at night with intent to commit a felony, but modern statutes in most jurisdictions have dropped the nighttime and breaking requirements and extended the offense to cover commercial buildings, vehicles, and other structures, so that the core element today is simply an unlawful or unauthorized entry combined with criminal intent. Burglary is typically graded upward, often to a first-degree or aggravated form carrying substantially harsher penalties, when it is committed at an occupied dwelling, when the offender is armed, or when the entry involves violence or the threat of violence against an occupant, reflecting the law's heightened concern for personal safety over pure property loss in those circumstances. The offense is one of the most frequently recorded property crimes in criminal justice statistics and a major subject of situational crime-prevention and target-hardening research examining how building design, occupancy patterns, and security measures affect burglary rates.