Astonishing Reasons Why Home Invasions Seem To Be Rising

In our article that was widely read entitled ‘Why Home Invasions Are So Dangerous?’ we mentioned several factors that differentiate home invasion from home burglary, give you some tips on how to avoid home invasion and how to act if you’re a victim of one.

In today’s article, we will explain why home invasions seem to be increasing.

To refresh your memory with a definition from the online encyclopedia home invasion “is an illegal and usually forceful entry to an occupied, private dwelling with violent intent to commit a crime against the occupants, such as robbery, assault, rape, murder, or kidnapping.” In most jurisdictions there is no defined crime of home invasion, rather it is lumped together with home burglary in most instances or armed robbery in others.

Home invasions are being committed with increasing regularity almost on a daily basis. To give you an example here’s a story from the Detroit News about a home invasion that occurred on 30 January 2015.

According to the story, a 19-year-old man who was armed broke into the house next door to where he was living. The homeowner’s wife heard a noise and asked her husband to check it out. The homeowner, who was 74 years old, did so and shot and killed the intruder in a confrontation.

The local prosecutor’s office will determine whether or not to bring charges against the homeowner. Unless there are other circumstances that are unknown at this time, the shooting appears to be justified with the homeowner protecting his life.

In our humble opinion, there are two chief reasons why home invasions seem to be on the increase.

The first is that regular home burglary is rapidly becoming more difficult because of home security cameras and social media. Historically only 13% of all home burglaries are solved. But that is rapidly changing with homeowners using surveillance cameras to take pictures of the perpetrators and posting them on social media. More burglars are getting busted this way. Police are even using this same technique to catch the bad guys.

Secondly, most home burglars are petty thieves who commit the crime of burglary to get quick cash by pawning items they steal from homes. The cash is then used to feed their drug habit. And drug use is getting more widespread every day.

As for prevention of this crime, the biggest tip is to beef up the area around your front door-the usual entry point. Use your peephole before you open the door. Once the door is open, it is too easy for the bad guys to get in.

Have you ever been a victim of a home invasion? Please share your experience. We want to hear from you.