Quick Facts: Theft Statistics
What is considered a theft?
Burglary is defined as trespassing into a structure to commit a felony or robbery. The use of force to gain entry is not required to classify a crime as burglary. Burglary is classified into three subclassifications: forced entry, trespass where force is not used, and attempted forcible entry.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report 2005
Theft Facts and Statistics…
* Property crime accounts for just over three-quarters of all crime in the United States.
* In 2005, law enforcement agencies reported an estimated 2,154,126 burglary crimes, an increase of 0.5 percent compared to 2004 data.
* An examination of 5-year and 10-year trends revealed a 1.8 percent increase in the number of robberies compared to the 2001 estimate and a 14.1 percent decrease from the 1996 figure.
* Theft accounted for 21.2 percent of the estimated number of property crimes committed in 2005. The median dollar loss per theft crime in 2005 was $1,725.
* Of all burglary crimes in 2005, 65.8 percent were from residential structures.
* The majority (62.4 percent) of residential burglaries in 2005 for which the time of occurrence was known occurred during the day, between 6 am and 6 pm
* Among the burglaries of non-residential structures when the time of occurrence was known, 58.0 percent occurred at night.
*A robbery occurs in the US every 14.6 seconds, according to the Uniform Crime Reporting Program’s crime clock.
* According to the FBI’s Preliminary Semi-Annual Uniform Crime Report, from January to June 2006, “theft crimes showed an increase of 1.2 percent over the 2005 level.”
* Overall, in approximately 84% of all burglaries, the offender gained entry to the victim’s residence or another building on the property.
Source: Crime in the United States 2005 Department of Justice – Federal Bureau of Investigation Date of publication: September 2006
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
Where thieves break into a house…
A survey in Pennsylvania showed that 81 percent of residential break-ins occur through the first floor.
34 percent of burglars entered through the front door;
23 percent through a first-story window;
22 percent through the back door;
9 percent through the garage;
4 percent entered on a base;
4 percent through keyless entry;
2 percent through a storage area;
and only 2 percent entered anywhere on the second floor.
A study in Connecticut showed that 12 percent of burglaries occurred through an UNLOCKED door and that in 41 percent of homes with alarms that were burglars, the security system was not activated.
