So now it's a "Home Invasion"?

I Googled "Home Invasion" because I heard about a very tragic story that happened
in the Northeast. It was a brutal break in and murder situation, and my husband said
the news media referred to it as a "home invasion".

Upon Googling "Home Invasion", I found hundreds of references for those words. Burglaries,
and break ins are now called "Home Invasions".

I understand that burglaries, break-ins and murders are serious, inexcusable crimes.
I just didn't understand that the all news media, in a coordinated effort to scare us
into a fetal position, are collectively referring to these crimes as "HOME INVASIONS!".

Maybe the use of "home invasion" is common knowledge to most people. Maybe it's no big deal in
the minds of many. However, in my mind--it disgusts me. The media is packaging crime and using
marketing techniques--the same strategies used by advertising agencies-to scare us as much as possible.

I'm just sick of this. Really, really sick of this campaign of fear.

I'm supposed to be afraid of Al Queda. I'm supposed to be afraid of terror. I'm supposed to be afraid
of the weather. I'm supposed to be afraid of walking out to my car alone. I'm supposed to be afraid of Hugo
Chavez. I'm supposed to be afraid of peanut butter with salmonella. I'm supposed to be
afraid of allowing my children to play outside alone. I'm supposed to be afraid of pit bulls.
I'm supposed to be afraid of wildfires. I'm supposed to be afraid of eco-terrorists. I'm supposed
to be afraid of suspicious packages. I'm supposed to be afraid of being disemboweled by a swimming pool drain.
I'm supposed to be afraid of terror cells in the United States. I'm supposed to be afraid of tainted pet food
killing my cat. I'm supposed to be afraid of drug-resistant TB. I'm supposed to be afraid of the Canadian
healthcare system. I'm supposed to be afraid of sharks, poisonous snakes, alligators and scorpions. I'm supposed
to be afraid of the French. I'm supposed to be afraid of identity theft. I'm supposed to be afraid of mad cow disease.

....and now...I'm supposed to be afraid of "home invasion".

How much longer will the American people tolerate this assault of fear marketing by a media that
is no longer engaging in journalism?

where as break-ins and burglaries not so.

eta: I would think it would be scarier to be home when some one breaks in.

That's another fear-mongering term. We never heard it used this way until the dark, dark Reagan years. Yes, it is the marketing of fear. Which is not to say that such crimes don't occur, only that they are hyped for nefarious purposes.

If you can afford them, I recommend them. You don't have to live your life in fear to be prepared for low probability hostile acts.

breakins, regardless of the fact that people were up and about in their homes. They would force there way in by breaking windows and doors and then restrain the residents and continue with their mayhem. That description would be different from a burglary or regualar breakin when the residents are asleep or gone.

breaking and entering and its counterpart, burglary.

Under commonlaw, a burglary is the breaking and entering of a dwelling after dark.

The same crime during the daytime would be breaking and entering whether it involves a dwelling or any other property.

"Home invasion" simply covers both when they involve dwellings and the added fact that people are home and dealt with in some harsh way.

I don't think it is part of any dark, sinister plot to scare us. It is just a way to describe either of these situations.

with the news. Cha-Ching!

which is a ROBBERY (crime against person) as opposed to a BURGLARY (crime against property.) You are correct that "home invasion" is a nice way to ramp up the fear level, but it is a better description of a multi-level crime of robbery,assault,arson, and murder. That isn't to say that most crimes dubbed "home invasions" deserve such a designation, but calling any crime that involves robbing someone at home a "home invasion" is contributing to the culture of fear.

Same with "identity theft." If someone steals and uses your credit card info from one card, that's credit card theft and rather simple to remedy. If someone uses your broad credit profile and/or to establish a fraudulent identity, that's "identity theft." Calling BOTH types of crimes "identity theft" ramps up the fear because people think of ID theft as the latter.

indicate that the property owners were harmed in some way. Not lethally, perhaps, but harmed none the less.

As opposed to a burglary, where the home is not occupied.

As I wrote, the term is useful for the sort of multiple level of crimes committed but it's no longer used for just that sort of crime. If I broke into your house and robbed you at gunpoint, dollars to donuts the local media would call that a home invasion, which it is, but it's not a home invasion on the scale of the one in Connecticut or others that have had national reporting.

the term was established for prosecutorial purposes, I believe. Usually it involves forced entry, but can happen after being 'invited' into a home and then asked to leave. Usually more than one perp involved, and there are usually other crimes against the person in the home involved, rape, assault, murder. Another example of a home invasion -- aside from the recent case in the NE(doctor's family) -- recall the pregnant woman a few years back who befriended a man she met (in the neighborhood, or while she was shopping?)who eventually invited him into her home when asked for some reason or other. The perp and his 'girlfriend' tied the couple up, injected bleach into the husband's veins, I *think* they removed the woman's fetus...any of this sounding familiar? If I recalled the where or when I'd try to google for exact details.

Some states may have defined "home invasion robbery" as a category but would still want to charge and prosecute based on additional crimes such as assaults, rapes, and murders, and not all of those crimes occur in every home invasion. I don't know if any states have done so, but the description doesn't occur for purposes of reporting in NIBRS, the system used to report all of the component crimes to the FBI.

A carjacking is a robbery.

Abortion was a crime at common law, and it had the separate term to distinguish it from murder. The fundies try to kill that distinction. They could still be against abortion and call it abortion. But no, that's not good enough for them.

It contributes to people's already weak understanding of the legal system to use terms like these, too.

*Co and the MSM.

I don't know why you see this as 'marketed' as was the fear of the French, but breaking in and harming occupants of dwellings does happen to be on the rise.

1. Define a marked increase

2. Show statistics where home invasions are up.

I live in Uptown. You should see the human refuse that lives in my neighborhood. Complete useless eaters. But I don't fear this crime.

Colorado Springs Police say home invasion style burglaries have skyrocketed this year, up 77-percent over last year. In fact so far this year, there've been 41, compared to 34 in all of last year. 60-percent of them have happened on the city's southeast side, but why there is still unclear. Sgt. Jeff Jensen explains, "You know unfortunately we don't know, a lot of time in home invasions what the suspects are looking for is illegal narcotics. That's not to say that every time somebody's victimized that they're involved in criminal activity, but unfortunately many of the times that these crimes occur, they are."

Although there aren't any firm numbers on that yet, officers say there are also lot of innocent victims. So to protect yourself, leave the lights on. Also leave the T.V. or radio when your not home. And never open the door, unless you know who's on the other side.

http://www.koaa.com/News/view.asp?ID=5503

May 31--WESLACO -- It's a horrific, perhaps all-too common scenario.

Masked men armed with high-powered weapons storm a home and often gag and beat the homeowner -- or anyone -- in sight.

Most perpetrators know exactly what they are looking for: sometimes large amounts of cash, sometimes bundles of drugs.

Other times, in stranger-to-stranger invasions, perpetrators target homes in affluent neighborhoods that appear to hold valuables inside.

Since last July, there have been eight reported cases of home invasions -- seven of them violent.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2930&purchase_type=ITM&item_id=0286-16982982

Police theorize troubling increase linked to growth in drug traffic and more desperate criminals.

By CINDY STAUFFER and JANET KELLEY
Lancaster New Era

Published: May 17, 2007 2:42 PM EST

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Used to be your home was your castle.

These days, you might want to dig a moat around it, to keep out the bad guys.

A new breed of criminal has emerged — the brazen, violent intruder who invades people's homes or properties, confronts his victims, and kills, attacks or takes what he wants, local law enforcement officials say.

In this month alone, three seemingly random invasions have resulted in four murders here, in Manheim Township and West Donegal Township.

In recent months, other incidents in the county have featured intruders who crawled through a doggie door and bound homeowners with duct tape, rang the doorbell and then used a gun to force their way into a home, and awakened elderly people in their beds to rob them. In one chilling case, an intruder even cut the electricity before going into a home.

"In my career, when I came on, I didn't even know the term 'home invasion.' It didn't exist," says Manor Township Police Detective James Alexander, a police officer for 24 years.

Says state police Sgt. Doug Burig, "We're seeing an increasing number of people going into occupied houses at night. Seven years ago, that was unheard of."

http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/204395

This is "marketed". Three weeks ago she was sitting at home in her apartment when someone smashed in the patio door and just came right in. He was met by a 22 year old female pointing a Glock .40 directly at his mid-section (2 to center of mass, 1 to the head) and said all she saw after that was an a*shole headed back where it came from. Believe me, she would have pulled the trigger had he made any move toward her. A call to the cops and some friends and within 10 minutes had 8-10 people there. Door was replaced the next morning.

Marketed. Right. Marketed is a concept such as advertising. This is real, no marketing involved.

Something similar happened to us - see my post lower down.

Crimes against property - such crimes as trespassing, destruction of property (vandalism), arson, theft, burglary.

Crimes against persons - assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon, sexual assault, robbery, murder.

Crimes against persons involve the use or the threat of force of violence and are considered much more serious legally and cary greater legal punishments than property crimes. In most jurisdictions "Home Invasion" is not a separate legal offense, but is descriptive of a particular type of crime against persons, i.e. involves the use or threat of violence, in the victim's home, generally in connection with the commission of another offense.

Are you suggesting people shouldn't worry about crime?
Where exactly do you leave?

Years ago, a group of young men broke into our house at 2 am while my then-husband and I were sleeping. I was seven months pregnant. We called 911 and the police came immediately. They saw the intruders running away from the house.

I was fairly calm during the event but later suffered from post-traumatic stress. I was afraid when I was in the house alone with the baby. For the first time, I realized what it is like for thousands - maybe millions - of people in this country who live in dangerous neighborhoods where they have to fear violence. What do they do if they don't have or can't afford air-conditioning, and have to keep the doors and windows locked at night? A lot of those folks are elderly.

A few months later, a 90-year old woman living one-quarter mile away was bludgeoned to death in her house in the middle of the night. The person who murdered her was fifteen. He did it to steal her car in order to go joy-riding with his friends. It's a reasonable assumption that he and his friends were the same people who broke into our house months earlier.

It was called "home invasion" then, and that was sixteen years ago.

I've heard it for years. It refers to a break in while people are in the house as well.

I would be afraid if someone broke into my house while I was home. :shrug:

The marketing of fear, the distraction of the celebrity, and the simultaneous absence of repetitive top-of-the-hour news regarding the illegalities of our own government completes the executive coup. Immobilize the masses with fear, and divide the rest ideologically.

The Democrats may not be fully up to the task of limiting all the excesses of the Executive Branch and cronies. The corporatist should never be sold control of news or the airwaves, yet the FCC auctions of greed continue.

As in a Freddy Krueger movie, I guess. The news is no longer about reporting facts in an unbiased manner. The news is about entertainment. "Come back tomorrow to see how many sexual predators we counted in your zip code."