A burglary occurred every 16.4 seconds in the United States in 2013.

This and more information about property crime was released last week by The Federal Bureau of Investigation in Crime in the United States, 2013. The report shows that the estimated number of property crimes decreased 4.1 percent. There were an estimated 8,632,512 property crimes reported to law enforcement last year.

The crime statistics report, issued by the Bureau’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, contains voluntarily submitted data from 18,415 city, county, state, tribal, campus, and federal law enforcement agencies on specific crimes brought to their attention. They include the violent crimes of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, and the property crimes of burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

Although Crime in the United States reports on all of those crimes, most relevant to security installation professionals is the burglary category. The UCR Program defines burglary as the unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft. To classify an offense as a burglary, the use of force to gain entry need not have occurred. The UCR Program has three sub-classifications for burglary: forcible entry, unlawful entry where no force is used, and attempted forcible entry. (The UCR definition of a “structure” includes an apartment, barn, house trailer or houseboat when used as a permanent dwelling, office, railroad car (but not automobile), stable, and vessel.)

• In 2013, there were an estimated 1,928,465 burglaries, a decrease of 8.6 percent when compared with 2012 data.
• The number of burglaries decreased 12.5 percent when compared with 2009 and was down 10.1 percent when compared with the 2004 estimate.
• By subcategory, 59.2 percent of burglaries involved forcible entry, 34.3 percent were unlawful entries, and 6.4 percent were attempted forcible entry.
• Victims of burglary offenses suffered an estimated $4.5 billion in property losses in 2013. The average dollar loss per burglary offense was $2,322.
• Burglaries of residential properties accounted for 74 percent of all burglary offenses.

Here are some other quick findings from Crime in the United States, 2013:

• During 2013, law enforcement made an estimated 11,302,102 arrests (including 480,360 for violent crimes and 1,559,284 for property crimes).
• There were an estimated 14,196 murders last year.
• Firearms were used in 69 percent of the nation’s murders, 40 percent of robberies, and 21.6 percent of aggravated assaults (weapons data is not collected on rape incidents).
• Victims of burglary offenses suffered an estimated $4.5 billion in property losses, and burglaries of residential properties accounted for 74 percent of the total reported.
• Larceny-thefts accounted for the largest percentage of property crimes reported to law enforcement—69.6 percent. (The average value of property taken during larceny-thefts was $1,259.)
• During 2013, an estimated 699,594 motor vehicles were reported stolen, and 73.9 percent of those were cars.