Trends and Patterns in Burglaries
The changes in the burglary rate over a 30-year span appear in Figure 4.4.
Residents of nearly 2.5 million households told NCVS interviewers in 2013 that someone had tried or had succeeded in entering their home to steal things. This translates to a rate of 26 for every 1,000 households, or more than 2 per- cent. That same year, over 1.9 million burglaries were reported to police departments across the nation, according to the UCR. (Roughly 25 per- cent of those break-ins were of commercial establishments and government agencies, not resi- dences; on the other hand, many completed as well as attempted residential burglaries were not brought to the attention of the police.) Burglars carted off an estimated $4.6 billion in stolen goods, yielding an average loss of over $2,000 per incident in 2013 (FBI, 2014b).
NCVS findings can be used to reveal differen- tial risks. Burglars, just like robbers, are the oppo- site of Robin Hoods. They steal from the poor much more than the rich. The dwellings of the most poverty-stricken families in the NCVS, those with an income of under $7,500, suffered at a much higher rate (55 per 1,000 households, which is over 5 percent) than any other financial bracket on the survey in 2013. As for race and ethnicity, white households experienced nearly 23 intrusions or attempted break-ins per 1,000 while black families suffered about 35, and Hispanic families endured just about the same rate, at 34 per 1,000. Family size seems to count. Households of six or more people were burglar- ized at a rate of 53 per 1,000, while individuals
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living alone came home to ransacked dwellings much less often, at 30 per 1,000. As for where the targeted home was located, a surprising change has taken place over the years. Burglary used to be a much bigger problem in large cities. In 1996, the burglary rate for urban dwellers in cities with a population of 1 million or more was a shocking 62 per 1,000 households. By 2013, that figure had drifted downward to just 22 per 1,000. The 2013 burglary rate for suburban families also was 22, while it was substantially higher in rural areas, at 30 per 1,000, according to the BJS’s Victimization Analysis Tool. Hence, burglary had shifted from a big city problem to a headache of country living.
It appears that a family’s financial status, deci- sions about where to live, and everyday behaviors determine, to some degree, whether a burglar invades their personal space.