Breaking and Entering: An Ethnographic Analysis of Burglary (Studies in Crime, Law, and Criminal Justice)

How do burglars go about their business? What do they fail to do before, during and after a crime? How do they perceive the criminal justice system and its sanctions? Breaking and Entering answers these questions and others concerned with the decision-making processes which burglars employ. The authors use a sensitive ethnographic method which has resulted in a detailed account of the `criminal mind′; they explore the minutiae of `fencing′ stolen goods and an assessment of the extent to which the criminal justice system deters, or perhaps encourages, the initiating or continuing of a criminal career.