Cheap goods see Brit burglars turn from home break-ins to mugging

WASHINGTON - New research at the University of Leicester has found that burglars have changed their ’shopping list’ - they have now switched to personal muggings from traditional household thefts.

According to the study, globalisation, especially cheaper electronic goods from China and the Far East, have changed the behaviour of British burglars.

James Treadwell, a lecturer in Criminology from the University of Leicester’s Department of Criminology said: “The last decade has been a remarkable one where crime is concerned, with massive changes and shifts. If we look back to the 1980s and 1990s, the type of staple crimes would be, for example, very often burglary and car crime and those crimes worked because they followed a business model and it was possible to break into a house and steal a video recorder and sell that at a profit.

“Cheap labour in China has had an impact on the type of crime that’s committed in the UK and the type of goods that are stolen today. Gradually, the prices of such goods has fallen so low as to they almost have no resale value. If you can buy a DVD player for 19.99 pounds, it’s simply not worth stealing.”

He added: “While we might have seen a decline in some types of crime, we have seen a rise in other forms of criminal activity, particularly young people who seem to be mugging one another.

“While DVD players for example, got cheaper, certain consumer items became smaller and were very, very expensive and sought after and so the latest mobile phone, or the latest ipod, which people carry about them, have become targets for robbers.”

Treadwell will be presenting his findings at the British Society of Criminology conference that is slated to be held at the University of Leicester in July. (ANI)