The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. Even the average burglary involves a loss of only several hundred dollars, it represents far more money than the average burglar nets. The average burglar is a white male under 25 with past history of a various offenses and will be arrested again for serious, but unpredictable, offenses. About 10 percent of murders now occur during a robbery and 5 percent involve drug disputes. Overwhelmingly, killer and victim are of the same sex, race, and age, and they also tend to have similar past criminal involvements - most have been arrested for other offenses.
Few homicides involve prior planning.
Offenders commit a wide variety of criminal acts, with no strong inclination to pursue a specific criminal act or a pattern of criminal acts to the exclusion of others. People seldom work at crime. Criminal acts involve short-range choices, that they tend to occur on the spur of the moment. Most criminal actions are brief in duration. The rewards are small, and fleeting.