The relationship between changing product-specific reward and stealing counts against the backdrop of decreasing reward of property crime overall

The majority of burglars commit their offences due to an economic motivation to gain cash, often to fund drug use. Given this, it is reasonable to think that burglars are suitably attuned to stolen goods market dynamics, such as the changing prices and demand for different stolen goods. Offender decision-making models such as the rational choice perspective and offender domain-specific expertise reflect this sensitivity to stolen goods market dynamics. There is recent evidence to demonstrate a close relationship between product-specific prices and demand with product-specific stealing counts. There is also indication that the reward of committing burglaries has been decreasing overall and that this is partially responsible for the property ‘crime drop’ experienced in Western market-based countries such as Australia and New Zealand over the last two decades. The present article provides a brief literature review on relevant offender interview research and offender decision-making models, before discussing recent developments in the research on product-specific reward and stealing counts, as well as research on the changing reward of property crime offences more broadly.