Definition
Burglary is a criminal offense defined at common law as the breaking and entering of the dwelling house of another in the nighttime, with intent to commit a felony therein, whether or not the felony is actually accomplished. All elements are required under the classic common-law formulation: (1) a breaking, (2) an entering, (3) of a dwelling house, (4) of another person, (5) in the nighttime, (6) with intent to commit a felony inside. The failure of any element defeats the charge under the traditional definition.
Modern statutory burglary has substantially broadened this formulation in most American jurisdictions, removing or relaxing the nighttime requirement, expanding covered structures beyond dwelling houses, and in many states reducing the required intent from a felony to any theft or unlawful act. Many jurisdictions now classify burglary by degree, with first-degree burglary typically reserved for residential nighttime break-ins and lesser degrees covering commercial premises, daytime entries, or entries without force.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The crime of unlawfully breaking into a vehicle, house, store, or other enclosure with the intent to steal.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Breaking and entering the dwelling house of another, in the nighttime, with intent to commit a felony therein, whether the felonious purpose be accomplished or not.
The modern common definition has drifted in two important ways: it collapses the specific intent element to theft only, and it expands covered structures to vehicles, stores, and enclosures of all kinds. The classical legal definition was broader in one respect (any felony, not just theft) and narrower in another (dwelling houses at night only). A researcher relying on the Wiktionary formulation would misread both historical sources and modern tiered statutes.
Common Confusion
BURGLARY VS. ROBBERY VS. THEFT
Burglary does not require that anything be stolen — the offense is complete at the moment of breaking and entering with felonious intent. Robbery requires force or intimidation directed against a person and is a crime of confrontation. Theft requires only the unlawful taking of property and involves no breaking-and-entering element. A burglar who takes nothing has still committed burglary; a robber who takes property from a person on the street has committed no burglary at all.
Core Elements
Under the common-law formulation, each element carried independent doctrinal weight:
BREAKING: Required some degree of force — however slight — to create or enlarge an opening. Entering through an already-open door was not a breaking. Constructive breaking (entering through fraud or threat) was recognized in some authorities.
ENTERING: Any part of the body or an instrument used to commit the felony crossing the threshold sufficed. Full physical entry was not required.
DWELLING HOUSE: Confined to a place of human habitation. Outbuildings immediately connected to and within the curtilage of the dwelling were generally included; purely commercial structures were not.
OF ANOTHER: The burglar could not burglarize his own home. Tenants could burglarize a landlord's adjoining premises; landlords could not burglarize their own rental property while occupied.
NIGHTTIME: Defined as the period between sunset and sunrise, or more precisely — in several authorities — when there is insufficient daylight to discern a person's face. Entries spanning both night and day required the breaking and the entering both to occur at night.
INTENT TO COMMIT A FELONY: The felonious intent must exist at the time of entry. A lawful entry followed by a later decision to steal was not burglary. The target felony need not be theft; intent to commit assault, rape, or any other felony satisfied the element.
Why It Matters in Research
Burglary is one of the most structurally transformed crimes in the passage from common law to modern codes, and the gap creates serious traps for researchers working across historical and contemporary sources.
First, the nighttime element is definitionally central to every historical source in this corpus but is absent or downgraded in many modern statutes. When reading nineteenth-century cases or treatises, an entry or breaking during daylight hours simply was not burglary — it might have been housebreaking or larceny, but the word burglary does not apply. Researchers counting or categorizing historical burglary charges should not assume equivalence with modern burglary statistics or indictments.
Second, the dwelling house limitation was strictly construed. Warehouses, shops, and even partially constructed buildings generated extensive case law on whether they qualified. Burrill's reference to "a building immediately connected therewith" signals the curtilage doctrine, which varied by jurisdiction and by how courts characterized specific outbuildings. Cases turning on structure type require attention to local precedent.
Third, the completed-felony rule is a frequent stumbling block: historical burglary convictions do not indicate that any theft or assault occurred. The offense was completed at entry with intent. Researchers using burglary conviction records as a proxy for property crime rates will overcount if they assume a completed taking.
Fourth, the shift to statutory degrees has created jurisdictional heterogeneity that makes interstate comparison in modern secondary sources unreliable without checking the specific statute in force. First-degree burglary in one state may require a weapon or an occupied dwelling; in another, it requires only nighttime entry into a residence.
Fifth, for researchers using this corpus on English legal materials: English law underwent significant statutory revision by 7 & 8 George IV c. 29 (1827), cited in Burrill, and later by the Larceny Act 1916 and Theft Act 1968. The common-law definition was reshaped well before American courts finished debating its elements.
Historical Dictionary Support
The five sources in this corpus are strikingly consistent on the core formulation. All define burglary as breaking and entering a dwelling house of another at night with felonious intent, and all specify that actual commission of the intended felony is not required. This uniformity reflects the stability of the common-law rule from Coke's Third Institute through the nineteenth century — every source cites Coke's 3 Inst. 63 as foundational, and four of five also cite Hale's Pleas of the Crown and Blackstone's Commentaries Book IV.
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the most structurally precise, adding the curtilage extension ("a building immediately connected therewith") and providing the fullest treatment of the nighttime element. Rapalje & Lawrence is the only source to address the word's origins directly, quoting Coke's etymology ("burgh, signifying an house, and laron, signifying a thief") and separately analyzing English statutory modifications alongside the common-law rule — making it particularly useful for understanding the English/American divergence.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the densest citation string, linking Coke, Hale, Hawkins, Blackstone, East, Russell, and early American state cases, giving researchers a roadmap to primary sources. Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) is notable for incorporating American case citations including the Supreme Court's Benson v. McMahon, 127 U.S. 457 (1888), which arose in an extradition context and illustrates how the common-law definition operated in federal proceedings.
None of the historical sources address the modern tiered statutory structure, and none grapple with the commercial-premises or vehicle expansions that now characterize most American burglary statutes. Researchers using these sources for modern law must treat them as common-law baselines only.
Jurisdictional Note
English law reformed burglary by statute as early as 1827 and again substantially in the Theft Act 1968. Most American states have replaced the common-law definition with graded statutory offenses that vary considerably in their treatment of nighttime, structure type, and the degree of the intended crime. A minority of states retain common-law elements as the baseline for first-degree charges. The Model Penal Code (§ 221.1) took a substantially different approach, defining burglary as entering a building or occupied structure with purpose to commit a crime therein, without a nighttime requirement.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Burglary — Elements and Degrees (The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia)