Burglary

Burglary – also called breaking and entering or house breaking – is a crime related to theft. It typically involves someone breaking into a house with an intent to commit a crime. To carry out a burglary is to burgle (British English) or burglarize (US English).

In most jurisdictions in the United States, burglary is a felony and involves trespassing, or entering a building or remaining unlawfully with intent to commit any crime, not necessarily a felony or theft. Thus, a conviction for burglary may qualify as a conviction under a three strikes law or habitual criminal statute, its against the law though only something of low value or nothing at all was stolen. Some burglaries have rape as an objective, so the crime of burglary cannot be trivialized as a mere property crime. As with all legal definitions in the U.S., the foregoing description may not be applicable in every jurisdiction since there are 51 separate criminal codes in force.

The state of Massachusetts is unique in that it does not formally use the term "burglary;" instead, the acts of breaking and entering and any theft that occurs coincident with such entry are treated as separate offenses, with the former being officially denoted "breaking and entering in the night-time (or daytime, as applicable) with intent to commit a felony (or misdemeanor, as applicable)," and the latter "(grand or petit) larceny from a building," if any property was indeed stolen. Thus if the perpetrator's intended act after entering the burglarized premises was not a felony, the result can be two different misdemeanor charges rather than a felony count.

Many other U.S. states treat burglary as a more serious crime when it occurs at night; California formerly prosecuted night-time burglary as "burglary in the first degree" and daytime burglary as "burglary in the second degree," under most circumstances (this state now uses building type — residential vs. commercial — in making the determination, with residential burglaries carrying the more serious charge). In states that continue to punish night-time burglary more severely than daytime burglary and the crime occurred during twilight, a standard of 30 minutes after sunset or before sunrise will often be observed as the boundary between night and day.