The Social Organization of Burglary

The social organization of systematic burglary is discussed and briefly compared to earlier work on systematic offenders. Salient aspects of both the internal and external social organization of burglary are presented, especially as these are related to the problems of burglary. It is suggested that burglary continues to be more like the social organization of professional theft, as this was presented by Sutherland, than check forgery and armed robbery, as these have been depicted in recent literature. Some possible reasons for this are presented. Finally, it is suggested that the social organization of burglary can be expected to continue to change as a result of macrolevel changes in the economy and in the nature of security forces.