The Attitudes of Victims of House-breaking on their being Victimized in Sri Lanka

Prof. M.W. Jayasundara
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Prof. M.W. Jayasundara: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2021, vol. 05, issue 10, 329-338

Abstract: As a developing country, Sri Lanka faces many problems, and presently they show an increasing trend. Among them, social disparities, terrorism, traffic in illegal narcotics, and crime are predominant. The term ‘housebreaking, in Sri Lanka is similar to ‘burglary’ in other countries. After 2015, the definition of housebreaking and theft had been changed to ‘house breaking’ as the term implies theft is included in housebreaking. This study draws on the housebreaking rates prevalent in Sri Lanka from 2006 to 2020, which records a considerable decrease in the number of housebreaking from 95.7 in 2006 to 30.7 in 2020. The research problem is primarily concerned with the impacts of house-breaking as a property crime, and how far it has affected the normal life of the citizens of the country as it stands at 20.9% of the total number of grave crimes of the country. Therefore, this study was aimed at finding the nature and the impacts of housebreaking on victims. Sixty victims of the housebreaking were selected to achieve the targets of the study from a convenient sample, adding 1-9 housebreaking from a police station chosen from selected eight districts. The data were collected by using a semi-structured interview schedule administered to the victims of housebreaking. The findings of the study revealed that the many house-breakers were unknown to the victims except the fact that 18.3% of offenders were their relatives and neighbours. The majority 63.4% of the victims were involved in businesses and government sector employment and comparatively, they were rich people in the community to be targeted by the offenders for house-breaking. The main target of the burglars was the money and gold on some occasions they had stolen mobile phones, television and other household electronics items. The victims had identified 30% of the housebreakers and they were drug addicts and alcoholics who had committed burglary to finance their drugs. The impact of the housebreaking was financial loss, mental pain and anxiety caused to the majority of the victims. The victims have taken measures to prevent revictimization by ensuring security of their residences as well as of their valubels.The study proposes reducing drug addiction and target hardening on burglars would minimize the house-breaking of the country.

Date: 2021
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