Burglary Rate Declines, Again

In 2010, there were an estimated 2,159,878 burglaries — a decrease of 2.0 percent when compared with 2009 data, according to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation in its “Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States 2010,” released in September of this year. It’s just one data point of many that comprise a trend of diminishing crime in general.

Crime is one of the top three factors that significantly affect sales of security systems, according to security dealers who participated in SDM’s soon-to-be-released 2012 Industry Forecast Study. Crime and security go hand-in-hand: Higher crime rates spur sales of security systems, dealers believe. Lower crime rates, among other factors, likely are attributable to greater adoption and usage of security systems.

The positive correlation between crime and security is supported by a comprehensive study of five years of statistics by researchers at the Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice in Newark, N.J., funded by the Alarm Industry Research & Educational Foundation. The study found that residential burglar alarm systems do deter crime. (To read the full report, visit www.airef.org.)

In the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, property crime includes the offenses of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The object of the theft-type offenses is the taking of money or property, but there is no force or threat of force against the victims. The UCR Program defines “burglary” as the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. The “burglary” category is most relevant to the work done by SDM’s readers.

Other findings by “Uniform CrimeReports: Crime in the United States 2010”:

• There were 699.6 burglaries for every 100,000 U.S. inhabitants in 2010.

• Of all burglaries, 60.5 percent involved forcible entry, 33.2 percent were unlawful entries (without force), and the remainder (6.3 percent) were forcible entry attempts.

• Victims of burglary offenses suffered an estimated $4.6 billion in lost property.

• Burglaries of residential properties accounted for 73.9 percent of all burglary offenses.

Laura Stepanek is an SDM contributing writer. Laura was the Editor of SDM from 2001-2020 and first joined the publication in 1984. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Barat College of DePaul University.

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