Rich is right. Currently, the torture instrument of choice is just a regular iron - the kind used for pressing shirts, etc. Properly used, it gets people to disclose where the valuables are hidden.
Seriously, now, I believe houses are just as safe/unsafe as apartments. Among my extended - and very extensive - family, only one cousin was a major crime victim. She was held up and raped in her posh apartment on Quintana, in Recoleta. At three in the afternoon.