HOME INVASION

'Home invasion' is the crime of entering a private and occupied dwelling, with the intent of committing a crime, often while threatening the resident of the dwelling. It is a legally defined offense in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and applies even if entry is not forced. It can also apply if someone is invited into a home and remains on the premises after being asked to leave by the resident.
Home invasion differs from burglary, which is illegal entry into any occupied or unoccupied building, with intent to commit a felony (often theft.) Home invasion sometimes involves several criminals, whereas burglary tends to be performed by a single perpetrator.
Home invasion may be accompanied by other crimes. The invaders may follow their victims home, commit breaking and entering, and are sometimes intent on assault, robbery, rape, or murder
According to an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED) draft entry for March 2004, the first published usage of the term in its modern sense is a November 1973 article in the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. The ''OED'' also cites a use of the term in the 1989 novel ''Toxic Shock'' (ISBN 0-575-04372-5) by Sara Paretsky.
Perhaps the most infamous home invasion of all time is the November 15, 1959 quadruple murder of the Clutter family by Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith in rural Holcomb, Kansas. The murders were detailed in Truman Capote's world-famous "nonfiction novel" In Cold Blood. A more recent infamous home invasion occurred on July 23, 2007 in Cheshire, Connecticut where two paroled criminals terrorized the Petit family for hours, tying the daughters to beds, committing sexual assault, strangling the mother, and leaving the father severely beaten; then setting the home afire with gasoline. The perpetrators are facing the death penalty for these crimes. [1]
A now-rare earlier use of the term dates to the 1850s.