ABSTRACT
This chapter is based upon research conducted in preparation for a Home Office funded evaluation of the Leeds Distraction Burglary Project (see Lister, Wall and Bryan 2004). Although statistically a relatively rare occurrence, distraction burglary has created considerable public concern during recent years because of the predatory way in which older people are specifically targeted as victims and its potentially devastating impact. The premeditated manner by which offenders engage directly with victims in order to deceive them and gain entry to their dwellings distinguishes distraction burglary from more conventional forms of burglary in which offenders typically seek to avoid victim contact by entering dwellings unnoticed (Bennett and Wright 1984; Wright and Decker 1994).
