Who is the most common victim of home invasion?

One of the most frightening crimes that can happen to you is a home invasion. Not only is your family’s safety at risk, but your personal space is also violated. A home invasion is generally defined as an unauthorized and forceful entry into a dwelling in order to commit a robbery or other crime. Most people are unaware of home invasion occurrences and their frequency in their community.

People often make assumptions about crime because of what they read in the news or what they see on television. We tend to both overestimate and underestimate how much crime actually occurs. Real crime does not conform to how we perceive it.

One aspect of crime people commonly get wrong is the victim. Who is mostly likely to experience a home invasion? Advertisements often show a mother and father with their children in a nice big home who are saved from a burglar by their new security system. But are they mostly likely to experience a break-in? It turns out, they aren’t.

According to the US Justice Department, single parents are most likely to experience a home invasion, over married couples and people living alone. A single parent who has a child in their home is TWICE as likely to have a criminal break into their home than the average. That number is even higher for single mothers, who are the most likely group to be victims of home invasion. Surprising, isn’t it?

Crime is an everyday occurrence. In the last year, over 1.5 million burglaries occurred in the US. The more real information you know about crime, the better you can prevent it and protect yourself and the people you love.