Although not generally a violent crime, residential burglary at times eventuates in robbery, rape or murder. The fear generated by residential burglary tends to outweigh the actual threat of physical harm and the trauma experienced by victim is real and lasting. If the victim of a crime feels so traumatized then the intrinsic nature of residential burglary has an added dimension beyond simple material loss and gain. In other words, the invasion of a home is perceived by victims to be a personal attack to a greater or lesser degree and it is the behavior within the premises that defines the level of impact. Criminal profiling is an investigative tool that uses crime scene characteristics to generate probable descriptive information about behaviors and personal characteristics of an offender, narrowing the field of suspect and aiding in apprehension efforts. Geographical profiling is the other investigative technique that analyzes the spatial pattern of related series of crime location in order to predict the location of the offender’s residence. There is a dearth of empirical study on the burglary investigation in Taiwan, and therefore this research is designed to incorporate both investigative tools of criminal profiling and geographical profiling to conduct a systematic examination on various aspects of serial residential burglar’s behavioral evidence. Specifically, the current study aims to (i) identify the characteristics of modus operandi at the pre-crime, the burglary event, and the post-crime stages, (ii) analyze the pattern of spatial behavior, and (iii) examine the correlation between offender demographical characteristic and behavioral evidence of model operandi as well as spatial behavior.. In addition to literature, data collections on a sample of 60 serial residential burglary offenders will incorporate those methods of content analysis of official documents, field investigation of crime scenes, and semi-structure interview of incarcerated offenders to gather information from various facets and to verify one another. The study will enrich our understandings of specific features of serial burglars that particular influence both the modus operandi and the spatial behavior of the individuals committing them, and by which law enforcement official can improve its capability in solving this type of property crime.
