Transient burglars

Research project on convicted transient offenders

 

Project period

01.04.2016 – 30.04.2017

Project Staff

Gina Rosa Wollinger (Project manager)

Dr. Nadine Jukschat

Funding

German Forum of Crime Prevention (Deutsches Forum für Kriminalprävention)

Police Crime Prevention (Polizeiliche Kriminalprävention)

Project description

The number of burglaries in Germany has been on the increase for almost ten years. Some of the perpetrators are what are referred to as ‘transient’ burglars: individuals who live outside of Germany and who briefly cross the border to commit as many burglaries as possible in a short time before leaving the country again. There are notable knowledge deficits in this connection concerning the modus operandi of transient burglars, how they select the places they target, to what extent they are organised in gangs, what happens to the stolen goods, and their biographical background. There is also a lack of evidence of whether there has been any change in the activity of transient burglars in Germany and hence whether the rise in burglaries may indeed be linked to this offender group. The Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN) plans to fill these research gaps with a study on transient burglars as a group. In the twelve-month project, 30 qualitative interviews are to be held with burglars arrested in Germany who were resident outside the country at the time of the crime.

Project related publications
  • Wollinger, G.R., Jukschat, N. (2017). Reisende und zugereiste Täter des Wohnungseinbruchs. Ergebnisse einer qualitativen Interviewstudie mit verurteilten Tätern. (KFN-Forschungsberichte No. 133). Hannover: KFN. Download