What is burglary?

Burglary is one of those crimes that seems easy to spot, but commonly confuses students. So let's break it down:

(1) Burglary requires a breaking, but this doesn't mean anything has to actually be broken. Confusing, right? Think of "breaking" more as "physically altering." For example, it is obviously "breaking" to smash open a window in order to climb into a house, but it is equally a "breaking" to slightly open a window that was already open, or pull open a door that is unlocked and not completely closed. The purpose of this element is to show that someone consciously and deliberately modified the structure of a home in order to be able to physically enter the home. In other words, if someone enters a home without permission and uses any level of force or effort to create or expand an opening in order to get inside the home, "breaking" has occurred. Note that under many modern burglary laws, merely entering a home without permission generally counts as a "breaking," which means if you leave your window or door wide open and someone moves through it without opening anything themselves, it is still a burglary instead of merely a trespass. However, on exams, you should be looking for some level of force.

(2) Burglary requires entry, but this doesn't mean your entire body needs to enter the home. If someone reaches their hand inside of a window, or inserts a tool, this counts as well. In other words, imagine if a home had a force field around it and anything that penetrates that force field triggers an "entry."'

(3) Burglary requires the breaking and entry to be into the dwelling of another during the night. This is another old-timey part of the law that has mostly been gotten rid of in modern statutes, but you'll still need to know it for your exams. In short, it means that burglary can only be committed against someone's home (where they live), and can only occur after the sun has set. This is an example of the law trying to draw a line in the sand where of course it is generally bad for criminals to break into buildings at any time during the day, but it is especially bad when they break into the sanctuary of someone's home during the night when they are probably sleeping and less able to defend themselves.

(4) Finally, burglary requires an intent to commit a felony once the defendant is inside of the home. In other words, if someone randomly, but intentionally, breaks into a home, during the night, and enters it in order to briefly sit on the sofa before leaving, it probably won't rise to a burglary. Rather, things like violent acts or theft of property will cross it over into the land of "burglary." Also note that the defendant doesn't need to actually be successful in committing the felony. If someone breaks into a house intent on assaulting its occupants, but is attacked and stopped by the family dog, their intent still satisfies this element.