Archive Report
Archive Report
Prevalence of the Crime of Burglary
Every 23 seconds, a burglary takes place somewhere in the United States. Burglary is by far the most common of the seven types of crime the F.B.I. classifies as “major.”1 In 1966, the last year for which complete data are available, 1,370,300 burglaries were committed—about one-half of them involving homes and one-half business establishments. The total value of unrecovered property was estimated at $340 million. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, in its February 1967 report on crime, stated: “It is a plausible assumption that the prevalence of the two crimes of burglary and robbery is a significant, if not a major, reason for America's alarm about crime, and that finding effective ways of protecting ...