‘I should have been a security consultant’: The Good Lives Model and residential burglars

Abstract

Understanding of the potential ‘rewards’ that residential burglars gain through their offences has largely been confined to monetary return, thus overlooking the possibility that offenders obtain other ‘goods’ from their criminal activities. By illustrating how burglars could be attending to various lifestyle deficits through crime, the article reveals indicators for case management, rehabilitation and desistance. The Good Lives Model (GLM) is employed as a framework to explore the ‘primary human goods’ attained through residential burglary. The article concludes with suggestions to encourage desistance by challenging the authenticity of the goods burglars seek to fulfil or remedy through criminal behaviour.