sinister agent wrote:
But if the only life being risked is your own, so what? Yes, it's a cirme and it's immoral, but saying that there's no reason to risk your life for selfish gain because that would mean risking your life is ridiculous, and the only reason the victim could be harmed is if you deliberately attacked them, which isn't part of robbing someone, but a totally different act, or if they somehow injured themselves while you were there, which is their own stupid fault for waving an axe around or whatever.
If, when a burglary goes wrong, the only person that could come to harm is the burglar, then I would have less of a problem with it.
History shows that the person being burgled is just as likely to come to harm. It is probably the case that the burglar in these cases did not intend to assault/murder when they set out to commit burglary, but did none the less.
Do a Google search for "killed disturbing burglars", you'll have no shortage of cases to peruse.
sinister agent wrote:
You originally said "they are prepared to endanger the lives of others for their own selfish gain." This simply isn't true. Committing burglary does not risk anyone else's life, ever. If you choose to attack or fight someone during a burglary, that's another crime and another action altogether (and it's pretty counter-productive anyway - a good thief will avoid confrontations as far as possible).
The definition of burglary is:
Burglary is defined by section 9 of the Theft Act 1968 which created two variants:
“ A person is guilty of burglary if he enters any building or part of a building as a trespasser with intent to steal, inflict grievous bodily harm [or raping any person therein][13], or do unlawful damage to the building or anything in it.(section 9(1)(a)) ”
“ A person is guilty of burglary if, having entered a building or part of a building as a trespasser, he steals or attempts to steal anything in the building, or inflicts or attempts to inflict grievous bodily harm on any person in the building.(section 9(1)(b))
So committing a violent act during a burglary can still be chargeable under the same offense.