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Originally Posted by Double Naught Spy
...statistically speaking most home break-ins are not robberies. They are burglaries.
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True.
Some definitions might help:
- Robbery is essential the taking of the property of another by violence or the threat of violence.
- Burglary is essentially the breaking and entering of a building with the intent of committing a felony therein.
- The felony most often intended by a burglar is larceny, i. e., the taking and carrying away of the property of another with the intent to permanently deprive him thereof.
Of course, those are only rough definitions, and different States may use different and more detailed definitions. But they will generally track with the foregoing -- which are based on the Common Law definitions of the respective crimes. The rough definitions are useful for highlighting the fundament differences between robbery and burglary.
The common risk to the householder present during a burglary committed for the purpose of larceny is that the burglar, being discovered by the householder, will use violence to either proceed with and carry out the larceny (making it robbery) or will use violence to help facilitate his escape and/or delay reporting of his crime and/or eliminate witnesses.