burglary

thumb|A stereotypical depiction of a burglar. Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, larceny, robbery, or murder, but most jurisdictions include others within the ambit of burglary. To commit burglary is to burgle, a term back-formed from the word burglar, or to burglarize.

==Etymology== Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) explained at the start of Chapter 14 in the third part of Institutes of the Lawes of England (pub. 1644), that the word Burglar ("or the person that committeth burglary"), is derived from the words burgh and laron, meaning house-thieves. A note indicates he relied on the ''Brooke's case for this definition.