Burglary Rate Trend Analysis

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Since the 1990s, the murder, robbery, and burglary rates have shown a decreasing trend analysis even though these violent crimes are more of a problem in the United States than a lot of other comparable countries (Karmen, 2016). Victimologists work diligently to gather information from not only the United States, but from other countries as well because that is often times a great way to compare and contrast to other fully developed countries similar to ours. In determing that the murder, robbery, and burglary rates had declined since the 1990s, victimologists looked at factors such as incident rates per 1,000 or 100,000, prevalence rates per 1,000 or 100,000, cumulative risks, trend analysis, and differential risks in helping them come …show more content…
One of the theories behind why the murder rate has declined so drastically is that the unemployment rate has decreased. With the exception of the economic recession of 2008 that lasted a little over two years, the economy has been really great since the turn of the century and that is another theory as to why the murder rate has dropped. People who are gainfully employed and bringing home more “legal income reduces the need for illegal sources of it” (Ford, 2016). An easy and safe assumption to the decline in the murder rate would be that the incarceration rate is at an all-time high, so there are not as many violent offenders on the street. I am an optimistic person and I want to believe that the murder rate is down because we have better ran and trained police departments, state of the art technology that focuses on data to help deter crime, and much improved laws that protect the citizens of our …show more content…
This number is absolutely staggering to me and I am not surprised that burglary is the most committed crime (Karmen, 2016). With the opportunity always being there because of houses being empty during typical work hours and businesses being closed in the evening and night hours, it is no wonder that a burglary takes place every 18 seconds (Chianis, 2018). I believe that the decline of burglaries is due to not only more police presence but because homeowners and businesses have become less trusting and started to secure their property at a much higher rate. In my neighborhood, just about everyone has a home security system along with exterior cameras and motion detector lights. These are obvious deterrents to a burglar since “about 60% of convicted burglars stated the presence of a security system influenced their decision to target another home” (Chianis, 2018). I believe that stricter penalties have also put the habitual burglars behind bars for substantial periods of time. I also believe that part of the reason for the reported decline is because like robberies, a lot of burglaries are not reported because of embarrassment, fear that they will not be properly investigated or because they were not properly insured to cover what was