• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Burglary as a Hazard

Extracts from this document...


Andrew Smith - Geography Burglary as a Hazard A geographical hazard is usually considered to be a threat on either people or property, posed by nature. It is the risk that something or someone could be put in danger. Burglary is a hazard, although not from a natural cause is still fits the definition by putting property at risk. Burglary is: * A threat to property * An invasion of privacy It can also cause psychological damage to people where they do not feel safe within their own home. They live in fear and feel vulnerable. As with most other hazards, both natural and human, it affects both the human and built environment. The effect on the human environment includes the invasion of privacy and the loss of property and possessions, whilst the built environment may be affected by damage and loss of property. The fact that the frequency and location of burglary cannot be predicted illustrates further the hazard that is burglary. It is hard to predict as most of the burglary in Britain is opportunistic and is not planned. To investigate the location and frequency of burglaries in the UK we could use police records. ...read more.


Burglary can have effects on both the human and built environment. Initially the loss of possessions from someone's home will have a financial effect, whether it will be the cost of replacing the items or the cost of increased premiums from insurance companies. When people are burgled they may be afraid of it happening again. They may live in fear and will feel vulnerable. In extreme cases it may even necessitate moving house, out of the area. Statistics (distance decay curve) show that burglaries happen close to the criminals home. This may mean that the victim may know the thief to look at. This visual recognition will only be one way, as the victim doesn't usually find out who the burglar is. The burglar chooses local victims as they will have the advantage of local knowledge and may also know the routine of the victim so they know when they are out of the house and at work. The built environment may be affected by the invasion of people's property. This may be physical damage to items or property. On the other hand, measures put in to restrict the movement of burglars and prevent easy get-aways may also restrict residents. ...read more.


Most of the time burglary is opportunistic and is done either out of boredom or because they need money for drugs. Ideally eliminating drug use within society should reduce the amount of burglary, but it is near impossible to prevent drug crime and therefore drug related crime will continue. The other main reason for burglary is boredom. Youngsters have nothing to do and so burglary passes the time. Schemes that have been successful in America have been introduced over here. The council are building basketball court and football pitches that young people can use safely in the evenings. This eliminates some of the boredom that the people have and it keeps the youngsters off the streets. Poverty is another reason why people burgle property. They may feel that they can never get a job and therefore feel that they have to steal what they want rather than buy it. Also jealousy of what others have leads people to steal what they want. I feel that the only way to stop burglary is to eliminate the reason why people actually do it not restrict how they do it with increased security. This, though, would require the authorities to stop drug use, attain full employment and stop youngsters from being on the streets, which is not going to happen. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text


Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related AS and A Level Crime & Deviance essays

  1. Literature Review: The Impact of Heroin Prices on Robbery Trends

    - Dobson, I. and Ward, P. Drugs and Crime (1985) in Brown, D. et al, Criminal Laws: Material and Commentary on Criminal Law and the Process of Law in NSW. (2001), The Federation Press, Sydney. - Donnelly, N, Weatherburn, D.

  2. Teenage Curfews.

    impossible to enforce, this could also mean that while a policeman was checking a bunch of teenagers for their age, there could be someone older further on down the road who is robbing a shop or vandalising something. Beverly Hughes a junior home office minister has a different view though,

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work