When it comes to crime statistics, violent crime tends to get most of the attention. While it’s often easy to overlook property crime because no force is involved, the FBI estimates that $14.3 billion was lost last year because of property crimes. Offenses that the FBI considers property crimes are burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The most expensive property crime is motor vehicle theft, which cost about $7,000 per crime on average in 2015.

According to FBI estimates, there were 707,758 motor vehicle thefts in 2015, causing more than $4.9 billion in losses. While property crime in general decreased last year, the number of motor vehicle thefts went up by 3.1 percent. Despite that increase, the number of vehicle thefts last year was lower than the number in 2011 and represents a decrease of more than 40 percent since 2006.

Because motor vehicle theft is a property crime, these numbers only include offenses where there is no force or threat of force involved. Additionally, because of the FBI’s hierarchy rule, if multiple crimes are committed in the same instance, only the most significant crime (typically if a violent crime is involved), is counted in the reported crime statistics.

The map below illustrates the rate of motor vehicle theft in states across the country.

With a rate of 475 motor vehicle thefts per 100,000 people, California has the highest rate in the nation. Vermont had the lowest rate of motor vehicle thefts, with just 28 per 100,000 people. Following Vermont are nearby Maine and New Hampshire, with 61 and 67 per 100,000 people respectively.

When you look at individual cities, four of the top 20 cities with the highest rates of motor vehicle theft are in California, as shown in the table below–starting with Oakland, California, which had a rate of 1,523 vehicle thefts per 100,000 people in 2015, the highest rate among all cities with more than 100,000 residents. In total, Oakland had 6,389 motor vehicle thefts last year.

The table below shows which cities have the highest rates of motor vehicle theft among cities with a population larger than 100,000 people.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post What Do Motor Vehicle Theft Rates Look Like Across the U.S.? appeared first on Law Street.

Violent crime in the United States was down by 5.4 percent in the first six months of 2013, according to the most recent FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics published Tuesday.

The FBI’s Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report compiles offenses recorded by law enforcement agencies throughout the United States to provide an overview of crime trends from the first six months of the year. According to the report, the 2013 statistics reveal decreases among all violent crime categories with the exception of rape, which has recently been redefined to include a wider range of offenses. The FBI’s definition of violent crime includes murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery.

The 2013 numbers indicate that the country has resumed its downward trend after a brief 1.9 percent increase was recorded in 2012. Violent crime in the United States has declined in the first six months of the year during the last five out of six years.

The Midwest experienced the largest change in violent crime in the beginning of 2013, with an overall drop of 7.4 percent. Of this change, the largest decrease was recorded in forcible rape, which went down by 14.3 percent under the old definition, followed by aggravated assault, which was down by 9.1 percent.

For a visualization of recent violent crime trends see our infographic.

Violent crime also decreased in each of the eight population groupings defined by the FBI, falling more than 9 percent in cities with less than 100,000 people. The number of murder in cities with 1,000,000 people or more also decreased dramatically by 18.5 percent. Among Law Street’s most dangerous cities over 200,000, half experienced violent crime declines. One of the most notable cases was St. Louis, which saw its violent crime go down by more than 20 percent in the first six months of the year. Oakland, Calif. on the other hand experienced a violent crime increase of 10 percent, which was primarily fueled by its 30.37 percent growth in robberies.

For more information on changes in specific cities see our article here.

In addition to violent crime, property crime also decreased in the first six months of last year, going down 5.4 percent as well. Property crimes include burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. The leading contributor to this decrease was burglary, which went down 8.1 percent. Although arson decreased by 15.6 percent and is considered a property crime, the FBI does not include these statistics in property crime totals.

The 2013 report also marks the first time that the FBI’s new definition of rape has been used by law enforcement to report offense totals. The updated definition removed the word “forcible” from the term and expanded the meaning to include any kind of penetration occurring without consent. The national changes indicated by the report do not yet use statistics according to the new definition because they cannot be compared with historic data; however, the new numbers are available for the individual cities that have started using the updated definition.

Click here to read more Crime in America coverage.

Kevin Rizzo

Kevin Rizzo is the Crime in America Editor at Law Street Media. An Ohio Native, the George Washington University graduate is a founding member of the company. Contact Kevin at krizzo@LawStreetMedia.com.

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