Burglary

Data on Burglary

In 1997, 2,461,120 burglaries were reported to the police, a rate of 920 burglaries per 100,000 citizens. This was a decline from 1996 and the sixth consecutive decline in the rate and number of burglaries recorded in the United States. And the 1997 rate of burglary was the lowest it had been in more than twenty years. More burglaries are reported to the police in July, and the fewest in February. The month of occurrence is no accident as a strong predictor of burglary is whether or not residents are at their homes.

Two-thirds of all burglaries include a forcible entry, that is, they occur when an offender uses force to enter a dwelling and remove property, and 27 percent involved unlawful entry without the use of force, by simply opening a door or window. Just over half of burglaries occur during the daytime when residents are likely to be away from their homes. This makes sense, as most burglars prefer not to be caught in the act. Two-thirds of all burglaries involve residences, and more residential burglaries occur during the day than is the case for other burglaries. Correspondingly, nearly two-thirds of nonresidential burglaries occur at night, typically at businesses when they are closed and no one is present. These facts suggest that creating proxies for occupancy are important for reducing the chances of burglary both for businesses and residences. Burglary victims reported losses of $3.3 billion in 1997, with an average loss of $1,334 per burglary.

The police “cleared” or made arrests for burglary in about 14 percent of all reported burglaries. This rate of clearance is much lower than for crimes of violence, and is much closer to that for other property crimes. Burglary is a male-dominated offense that involves young adults. In 80 percent of all burglary arrests, the suspects are aged 18 and over. Of all arrestees, nearly 90 percent were male, just over two-thirds were white, and nearly two-thirds were under 25.

The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the second major source after the FBI of data used to measure the amount of crime in American society. For 1999, 3,652,000 residential burglaries were reported to the NCVS. This represented a decline of nearly 350,000 from 1998. The 1999 rate of residential burglaries per 1000 households was 34.1, meaning that about 3 in every 100 residences was burgled that year. Blacks were more likely than any other race group to be burglary victims, 52.6 per 1000 black households. And poorer residents were much more likely to experience burglary victimization than were other income groups. Indeed, the poorest group, that earning less than $7,500 per year had a 67 per 1000 rate, compared to 23.1 per 1000 for those with incomes of $75,000 or more.

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