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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.^{[citation needed]}

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. Houston, Texas saw a rise in such crimes in the late 1990s when elderly women shoppers at an upscale mall were targeted based on their jewelry, followed home, and robbed in their driveways.

Few statistics are available on the incidence of home invasion, but some law enforcement agencies have suggested it is on the rise in the United States. The crime is considered an alternative to convenience store robberies, which are getting harder to pull off cleanly and netting less cash. Other authorities have suggested home invasion is a minimal threat and almost always involves invaders who have a personal knowledge of the home-owner. One way to minimize the chances of such a crime would be to avoid contact with persons who might be capable of committing a home invasion crime.

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 may face the death penalty for these crimes. [1] Another infamous home invasion occurred on November 26,2007 when Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor was murdered during an overnight home invasion of his suburban Miami home. Four defendants were charged with this crime. [2]

A now-rare earlier use of the term dates to the 1850s.

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