In some parts of the United States and some other English-speaking countries, home invasion is an illegal and usually forceful entry to an occupied, private dwelling with intent to commit a violent crime against the occupants, such as robbery, assault, rape, murder, or kidnapping.
Historiography
The first published use of the term "home invasion" recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary is an article in The Washington Post on 1 February 1912, with an article in the Los Angeles Times on 18 March 1925 clearly indicating the modern meaning. "Home-invasion robberies" were highlighted in June 1995, when the term appeared in the cover story of The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin in an article written by Police Chief James T. Hurley of the Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, area, later republished on bNet, the online blog posted by Harvard Business School. Hurley posited that, at the time, the crime could be considered an alternative to bank or convenience store robberies, which were becoming more difficult to carry out due to technological advances in security. In the same article Hurley recommended educating the public about home invasion. Before the term "home invasion" came in use, the term "hot burglary" was often used in the literature. Early references also use "burglary of occupied homes" and "burglar striking an occupied residence". Connecticut Congressman Chris Murphy proposed in 2008 making home invasion a federal crime in the United States.
Definition
Home invasion differs from burglary in that its perpetrators have a violent intent apart from the unlawful entry itself, specific or general, much the same way as aggravated robbery—personally taking from someone by force—is differentiated from mere larceny.
Under US law
In some jurisdictions, there is a defined crime of home invasion; in others, there is no crime defined as home invasion, but events that accompany the invasion are charged as crimes. Where home invasion is defined, the definition and punishments vary by jurisdiction. It is not a legally defined federal offense throughout the United States, but is in several states, such as Georgia, Michigan, Connecticut, Illinois, Florida, Louisiana, and Nevada. Home invasion laws also have been introduced in the South Carolina General Assembly and in the State of Maryland. On March 15, 2011, a bill making home invasion deaths a capital crime in New Hampshire passed the New Hampshire House without debate. Many U.S. states include defending oneself against forcible entry of one's home as part of their definition of justifiable homicide without any obligation to retreat.
Other jurisdictions
Home invasion as such is not defined as a crime in most countries other than the US, with offenders being charged according to the actual crimes committed once inside the building, such as armed robbery, rape or murder. In English law, offenders who commit burglary while carrying a weapon can be convicted of the offence of aggravated burglary even if the weapon is not actually brandished or used. In section 348 of the Criminal Code of Canada, home invasion can be considered as an aggravating circumstance in cases of
Few statistics are available on the crime of home invasion as such, because it is not defined as a crime in its own right in most jurisdictions. Statistics about home invasion found on the Internet are often false or misleading. Persons arrested for what the police or media may refer to as "home invasion" are actually charged with crimes such as robbery, kidnapping, homicide, rape, or assault.
Notable examples
The Chauffeurs de la Drôme were a gang of four men who carried out a series of attacks on remote dwellings in the Department of Drôme in south-west France between 1905 and 1908. They became notorious for roasting the feet of householders against the fireplace, to torture them into revealing the hiding places of valuables. Responsible for as many as 18 murders, three of the gang were executed on September 22, 1909. The fourth died on the penal colony at Devil's Island. One well-known home invasion is the November 15, 1959, quadruple murder of the Clutter family by Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith during a home-invasion robbery in rural Holcomb, Kansas. The murders were detailed in Truman Capote's "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood. However, the perpetrators were convicted of murder, not home invasion. More recently, two paroled criminals were each charged with three counts of capital murder during a home invasion into the Petit family home in Cheshire, Connecticut, on July 23, 2007. During the invasion, the mother died of asphyxiation due to strangulation and the two daughters died of smoke inhalation after the suspects set the house on fire. The men were charged with first-degree sexual assault, murder of a kidnapped person, and murder of two or more people at the same time. The state attorney sought the death penalty against the suspects. The first defendant, Steven Hayes, was found guilty of 16 of 17 counts including capital murder on October 5, 2010, and on November 8, 2010, was sentenced to death. His co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, was convicted of all 17 counts against him in October 2011, and was also sentenced to death. Both men later had their sentences commuted to life without parole when Connecticut abolished the death penalty in 2015. Another home invasion occurred on November 26, 2007, when Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor was murdered during an overnight home invasion of his suburban Miami home. Four defendants were charged with this crime.
