Property Crime in America Costs Over $17 Billion Per Year

Property crime statistics by FBI

According to statistics released by the FBI, property crime cost an estimated $17.2 billion dollars in losses in 2008. The statistics, released as part of the FBI’s Crime In The United States publication, show the costly damage of property crime.

Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft and arson. There were approximately 9,767,915 property crimes in the United States in 2008. There was, however, a 5.3 percent drop in this type of crime between 2004 and 2008.

Burglary accounted for 22.7 percent of all property crime. There were an estimated 2,222,196 burglaries in 2008, up 2 percent from 2007.

There were 3.6 percent more burglaries in 2008 than in 2004 and 5.8 percent more than in 1999. 61.2 percent of all burglaries in 2008 involved forcible entry.

Far more residential properties were broken into than commercial properties. 70.3 percent of all burglaries were residential.