Burglary

Download Printable Document

The Uniform Crime Reporting (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 Program has three subclassifications for burglary: forcible entry, unlawful entry where no force is used, and attempted forcible entry. The UCR definition of "structure" includes, for example, apartment, barn, house trailer or houseboat when used as a permanent dwelling, office, railroad car (but not automobile), stable, and vessel (i.e., ship).

Overview

• In 2005, law enforcement agencies reported an estimated 2,154,126 burglary offenses-a 0.5-percent increase compared with 2004 data.
• An examination of 5- and 10-year trends revealed a 1.8-percent increase in the number of burglaries compared with the 2001 estimate, and a 14.1-percent decline from the 1996 number.
• Burglary accounted for 21.2 percent of the estimated number of property crimes committed in 2005. (Based on Table 1.)
• The average dollar loss per burglary offense in 2005 was $1,725.
• Of all burglary offenses in 2005, 65.8 percent were of residential structures.
• Most (62.4 percent) of residential burglaries in 2005 for which time of occurrence was known took place during the day, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. (Based on Table 23.)
• Among burglaries of nonresidential structures when time of occurrence was known, 58.0 percent occurred at night.

Expanded burglary data

Expanded offense data are the details of the various offenses that the Program collects beyond the count of how many crimes law enforcement agencies report. These details may include the type of weapons used in a crime, type or value of items stolen, and so forth. In addition, expanded data include trends (for example, 2-year comparisons) and rates per 100,000 inhabitants.

Expanded information regarding burglary is available in the following tables:

Trends (2-year): Tables 12, 13, 14, and 15
Rates (per 100,000 inhabitants): Tables 16, 17, 18, and 19
Offense Analysis: Table 23

Release Date: September 2006