Toward a typology of sexual burglary: Latent class findings

PurposeTo understand fully the nature of residential burglary one must examine the situational context, and offender's behavior during the burglary. Although several behaviors appear to be distinctly related to sexual burglaries, including voyeurism, fetishism, sexual violence, and sexual murder, a systematic typology of the characteristics of residential sexual burglary is lacking. The purpose of the study was to develop a typology of residential sexual burglary.MethodsThe present study investigated 224 incidents of residential burglary with recorded sexual components. A typology classifying these incidents was developed using Latent Class Analysis.ResultsThree types of sexual burglary were identified. Fetishistic noncontact burglaries typically occurred in unoccupied houses and involve fetishistic behavior, but no theft, violence, and weapon. Versatile contact burglaries were characterized by rapes occurring in apartments and involving theft, violence, and weapon. Finally, perpetrators of sexually oriented contact burglaries raped their victim in houses but these incidents rarely involved theft, violence, or weapon. Previous offenses were also analyzed; the three distinct types of burglary appear to be embedded in different prior offense histories. The practical implications are discussed.ConclusionsThis research underscores the importance of examining the situational context and offender's behavior during a residential burglary with sexual components.

► We investigated residential burglaries with sexual components ► We developed a typology of sexual burglaries using latent class analysis ► We found three classes: fetishistic noncontact, versatile contact & sexually oriented