This is the first book available from the Wadsworth Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice Series about burglars--why they do what they do, how they do it, and what the general public can do to protect themselves. The authors analyze the decision-making processes employed by burglars and discuss what rational processes are used when contemplating burglary. How do residential burglars select their targets? What environmental factors are used as discriminative cues in target selection? What marketing strategies and outlets do burglars use to fence their stolen goods? Cromwell and Olson also look at the desistance process to help readers understand circumstances that may lead offenders to end their criminal activities. The ethnographic approach provides readers with a first person perspective of criminal behavior, in the words of the offenders. The authors discuss how "ordinary people" aid burglars by buying their stolen goods.