Burglary

This article is based on the Safety Monitor (Integrale Veiligheidsmonitor), a survey carried out by Statistics Netherlands and the Ministries of Internal Affairs and of Justice. The survey has been conducted since 2008 in the last three months of the year, among a sample of the population aged 15 years and older. The institutionalised population is not included. The results are subject to a margin of error, as they are based on a sample.

The calculations in this article are based on a number of questions in the Safety Monitor concerning crime victims and opinions about the neighbourhood of residence:

• How great do you think the risk is that you will experience a burglary in your own home in 2009?
• Have you experienced an attempted break-in in the last 5 years without anything being stolen?
• Has anything ever been stolen from your home in the last 5 years?

Respondents answering yes to the last two questions are asked further about the most recent and second most recent case. Victims of attempted burglary are considered to be victims of burglary.

Presented with a number of statements about the neighbourhood of residence, respondents answer whether they ‘completely agree’, ‘agree’, are ‘neutral’, ‘disagree’ or ‘completely disagree’ with these statements. The statements used for this article are:

• My neighbourhood is well-lit.
• I have a lot of contact with people in my neighbourhood.

For the risk of repeated (attempted) burglary in 2008, a comparison was made between people who had experienced a burglary in the period 2004-2007, and those who had not experienced a burglary  in 2004-2007. The perceived risk of experiencing a burglary ‘next year’ (2009) was compared between people who had recently experienced a burglary (2004-2008) and those who had not.