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Comment by zerocrates | Hacker News Reader

Burglary isn't necessarily/traditionally a violent crime. Crime stats usually report it as a non-violent property crime, though there are parts of federal law that treat it as violent or similarly to violent crimes. It doesn't have violence as an element of the crime, but breaking into peoples' houses obviously sets the stage for more violent encounters.

Robbery on the other hand is by definition a violent crime, the threat of violence is what distinguishes it from other forms of theft or larceny.

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General data from the US for burglary depends on the source, yea.

If you look at victim data it's roughly it's 3 million burglaries per year, about 1/3 of which are home invasions. And about 1/4 of those (so 1/12 of total) are also violent crimes where the resident is injured.

But then when it comes time to report crime stats some stuff gets partitioned off into other buckets (I guess to avoid double counting? Idk). So e.g. some sources will take those 250k assaults-during-burglary and not count them as burglaries.

It gets really confusing really fast.

> Robbery on the other hand is by definition a violent crime, the threat of violence is what distinguishes it from other forms of theft or larceny.

This is exactly it for me.

When I first read that the TSA would report you to the DEA for carrying large sums of cash into an airport, and the DEA would intercept you and seize it, I’ve been referring to it as armed robbery.

When the DEA asks you to hand over the $10k in your backpack, they’re doing it under threat of violence. It’s armed robbery, they just haven’t “drawn their gun yet.”

Try sticking to “I’m sorry sir, you can not have my money” and you’ll quickly see what the full weight of the U.S. Government looks like when escalated against you.

From the time they decided they wanted your money, it was theirs.

Robbery and burglary are both considered inherently dangerous crimes for which the felony murder rule can be applied. That means that if someone dies (victim, perpetrator or bystander) during a burglary or robbery, then the perpetrators can be charged with murder.

Also, I’d add that robbery can be done by trick instead of threat of violence. E.g., a robber tricks victim into handing over their wallet or purse, then distracts them while they remove valuables. The victim may not even know they’ve been robbed until later. If the victim, later noticing she has been robbed, then has a heart attack and dies, however, then the robber could potentially be charged with felony murder.

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