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BURGLARY (burgi latrocinium; in ancie...
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See also:BURGLARY (burgi latrocinium; in See also:ancient See also:English See also:law, hamesucken2) , at See also:common law, the offence of breaking and entering the dwelling-See also:house of another with See also:intent to commit a See also:felony. The offence and its See also:punishment are regulated in See also:England by the See also:Larceny See also:Act 1861. The four important points to be considered in connexion with the offence of burglary are (I) the See also:time, (2) the See also:place, (3) the manner and (4) the intent. The time, which is now the essence of the offence, was not considered originally to have been very material, the gravity of the See also:crime lying principally in the invasion of the sanctity of a See also:man's See also:domicile. But at some See also:period before the reign of See also:Edward VI. it had become settled that time was essential to the offence, and it was not adjudged burglary unless committed by See also:night. The See also:day was then accounted as beginning at sunrise, and ending immediately after sunset, but it was afterwards decided that if there were See also:left sufficient daylight or See also:twilight to discern the countenance of a See also:person, it was no burglary. This, again, was superseded by the Larceny Act 1861, for the purpose of which night is deemed to commence at nine o'See also:clock in the evening of each day, and to conclude at six o'clock in the See also:morning of the next succeeding day. The place must, according to See also:Sir E. See also:Coke's See also:definition, be a See also:mansion-house, i.e. a man's dwelling-house or private See also:residence. No See also:building, although within the same See also:curtilage as the dwelling-house, is deemed to be a See also:part of the dwelling-house for the purposes of burglary, unless there is a communication between such building and dwelling-house either immediate or by means of a covered and enclosed passage leading from the one to the other. See also:Chambers in a See also:college or in an See also:inn of See also:court are the dwelling-house of the owner; so also are rooms or lodgings in a private house, provided the owner dwells elsewhere, or enters by a different See also:outer See also:door from his lodger, otherwise the lodger is merely an inmate and his apartment a See also:parcel of the one dwelling-house. 2 In Scots law, the word hamesttcken meant the feloniously beating or assaulting a man in his own house. As to the manner, there must be both a breaking and an entry. Both must be at night, but not necessarily on the same night, provided that in the breaking and in the entry there is an intent to commit a felony. The breaking may be either an actual breaking of any See also:external part of a building; or opening or lifting any closed door, window, shutter or See also:lock; or entry by means of a See also:threat, artifice or See also:collusion with persons inside; or by means of such a necessary opening as a See also:chimney. If an entry is obtained through an open window, it will not be burglary, but if an inner door is afterwards opened, it immediately becomes so. Entry includes the insertion through an open door or window, or any See also:aperture, of any part of the See also:body or of any See also:instrument in the See also:hand to draw out goods. The entry may be before the breaking, for the Larceny Act 1861 has extended the definition of burglary to cases in which a person enters another's dwelling with intent to commit felony, or being in such house commits felony therein, and in either See also:case breaks out of such dwelling-house by night. Breaking and entry must be with the intent to commit a felony, otherwise it is only trespass. The felony need not be a larceny, it may be either See also:murder or See also:rape. The punishment is penal See also:servitude for See also:life, or any See also:term not less than three years, or imprisonment not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. Housebreaking in English law is to be distinguished from burglary, in that it is not essential that it should be committed at night, nor in a dwelling-house. It may, according to the Larceny Act 1861, he committed in a school-house, See also:shop, warehouse or counting-house. Every burglary involves house-breaking, but every housebreaking does not amount to burglary. The punishment for housebreaking is penal servitude for any term not exceeding fourteen years and not less than three years, or imprisonment for any term not exceeding two years, with or without hard labour. In the See also:United States the common-law definition of burglary has been modified by See also:statute in many states, so as to See also:cover what is defined in England as housebreaking; the maximum punishment nowhere exceeds imprisonment for twenty years. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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