18
Jun
2014
By Calvin at 14:28 GMT, 11 years ago
A new report today from home insurance provider RIAS, launched during Neighbourhood & Home Watch Week (14 – 22nd June 2014), reveals that an overwhelming majority of Britons are prepared to use force on home intruders.
The report is full of facts and figures and here’s a summary.....
With one quarter of survey respondents having already been the victim of a domestic burglary, 93% consider it acceptable to use force on home burglars, with 16% actively prepared to attack an intruder rather than threatening them verbally.
Whilst the number of burglaries across the UK fell between 2011 and 2014 by 14%, just three per cent of believes using force against intruders is never acceptable in the event of a break-in.
The report, which analyses the way British people respond, or expect to respond, to domestic burglary, investigated the circumstances in which people believe it is acceptable to use force to protect their home and belongings. According to the research, the primary reason is to protect family members (71%), sixty percent feel using force would be acceptable if they felt threatened, and 49% say it’s acceptable to use force simply if they found a burglar in their house. Thirty-seven percent believe it’s fair to use force if an intruder had hold of their belongings.
In terms of the first actions taken by survey respondents should an intruder enter the house when they are home alone:
- 52% would call the police
- 16% would physically attack the intruder
- 9% would use verbal threats
- 9% would ‘run them out of the house’
Some other findings tell us that:
- [Only] 52% of respondents would call the police if they saw someone acting suspiciously outside a neighbour’s house [I use the word ‘only’, because that’s shockingly low!]
- 14% would call their neighbour directly to alert them
- 11% would take a photo [of the suspects] for evidence (rising to 14% for 18-34 year olds).
- 74% would expect a custodial sentence for burglars, with 57% demanding a prison sentence of at least one year
- 18% of Britons are part of a formal Neighbourhood Watch Scheme rising to 23% for people over 50 years old.
TCPW Comment
It’s always interesting to read these new pieces of research from insurers and security companies The report even includes a quote from a reformed burglar. (The media are infatuated by them and so obviously they’re the best people to get advice from)
Having read the report in full I would suggest that your reaction to being confronted by a burglar in your own home is something you absolutely will not be able to predict until it happens. The burglar could be a 13 year old girl or a 25 year old male as fit as a butcher’s dog; there could be two or three of them with you on your own,; they may or may not be carrying a weapon or more likely will be carrying the tool with which they used to force open a window, which could be used on you. That baseball bat you keep by the bed isn’t going to be much use as you walk in through the front door to be confronted by two burly burglars in the hallway and so it goes on...
The important thing is for us to think about is how to protect our homes, so that we’re not faced with these situations. Of course you can protect yourself, your family and your property and use force that is justifiable in the circumstances and providing that force is not grossly excessive the law will be on your side.
If you want to read the rest of this report and the various quotes (they didn’t ask me for one!) please follow this link to RIAS, the trading name of Ageas 50 Limited at http://www.rias.co.uk/about-us/news-and-press-releases/my-home-is-my-fortress-brits-in-favour-of-force-to-protect-homesnew-page/
