Scots hit by housebreakers

Thieves will sometimes stick to one side of a street

Housebreaking costs Scotland £23m a year - nearly £5 for every member of the population - according to a report.

The research, commissioned by insurance company Direct Line and crime charity Victim Support, is part of a campaign to look at how thieves can be deterred and raise awareness about the effects of housebreaking.

It showed that the costs associated with such crime in Scotland - the value of stolen property, criminal damage and time taken off work to deal with the experience - are topped only by that of London.

The English capital's figure was put at £32m, just £3 per head of population.

House-breakings cause emotional distress

The report indicates, however, that the costs of crime are not purely financial.

Researchers found the vast majority of people whose house had been broken into suffered some kind of emotional distress after the event.

More than 75% of respondents also said that housebreaking was the crime they most feared.

Direct Line and Victim Support maintain that more effort must be made to deter housebreaking, but also to recognise the effects of the crime.

Repeat crimes

Research by criminologists has shown that housebreakers will often stick to one side of a street after a first burglary.

We know that after a break in older children often do badly at school and younger children begin wetting the bed.

David McKenna, Victim Support, Scotland

Bad lighting on one side, familiarity with the lay-out of similar houses after a first break in, or just laziness on the part of offenders were suggested as reasons.

A report, published in April, analysed housebreaking statistics in Glasgow, Dundee and Falkirk, and interviewed 32 persistent burglars in Scottish jails.

It found that once a street had been broken into twice there was a 90% chance of crime on the same side.

David McKenna from Victim Support in Scotland said families are the big losers.

David McKenna: "Devastating effect"

"We hear many women describe it as having had their home invaded.

"And we know that after a break in older children often do badly at school and younger children begin wetting the bed.

"In Scotland every three minutes someone has their house broken into, it is something that most people fear with 75% of the population having that fact in the front of their minds.

"It has a devastating effect on the whole community day in day out. And some 25,000 incidents of housebreaking are reported to the police in Scotland each year," said Mr McKenna.