Burglary, Violence, and the Armed Career Criminal Act
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has issued a new report on victimization during household burglary, which might have important implications for the application of the Armed Career Criminal Act. First, here are the report’s highlights on the burglary-violence connection:
- A household member is present in about one-quarter of residential burlgaries.
- A household member is violently vicitmized in about seven percent of residential burglaries (or about one-quarter of the burglaries in which a household member is present).
- In residential burglaries, simple asault is the most common violent crime (3.7 percent of all burlgaries), while more serious violent crimes like rape (0.6 percent) and aggravated assault (1.3 percent) are far less frequent.
- In a majority of even the “violent” burglaries, the victim indicates there is no injury; a “serious injury” is sustained in only 8.5 percent of the violent burglaries.
- In the violent burglaries, fewer than forty percent of the offenders are armed.
Now, for the ACCA link.