Communities and police departments across the United States are grappling with rising rates of deadly violence, as the U.S. murder rate reached its highest level in nearly two and a half decades in 2020. Despite the recent surge in homicides, however, most Americans face a far higher risk of being the victim of crimes that do not involve violence.
Property crimes, a broad category of theft-related offenses, are by far the most commonly reported of all major crimes in the United States, accounting for over 80% of the most serious offenses tracked and reported by the FBI. Property crimes fall into one of three categories: larceny, burglary, and vehicle theft.
Larceny is defined as the unlawful taking of property — pickpocketing and shoplifting being two common examples. Burglary, defined as the illegal entry of a structure to commit a crime, such as theft, is the most severe form of property crime tracked by the FBI. Vehicle theft, meanwhile, is a crime that can be either the theft, or the attempted theft, of a vehicle, such as a car, motorcycle, or ATV.
There were a total of 97,487 property crimes reported in Maryland in 2020. Adjusting for population, there were 1,610 property crimes for every 100,000 people, the 15th lowest property crime rate among states and lower than the national rate of 1,958 per 100,000 people.
Larceny is by far the most commonly reported property crime nationwide. The same pattern holds in Maryland, where larceny accounted for about 74% of all major nonviolent offenses in 2020. Burglary, meanwhile, comprised about 16% of reported property crimes in the state, and motor vehicle theft accounted for 11%.
All data in this story, including population estimates used to calculate crime rates, are from the FBI.
Rank State Property crimes per 100k people, 2020 Total poperty crimes, 2020 1 Louisiana 2,884 133,989 2 New Mexico 2,842 59,859 3 Colorado 2,834 164,582 4 Washington 2,732 210,223 5 South Carolina 2,721 141,987 6 Oklahoma 2,706 107,705 7 Oregon 2,659 112,782 8 Arkansas 2,613 79,200 9 Missouri 2,531 155,698 10 Tennessee 2,493 171,675 11 Utah 2,464 80,091 12 Hawaii 2,411 33,928 13 Alaska 2,261 16,528 14 Texas 2,245 659,160 15 Arizona 2,228 165,323 16 North Carolina 2,227 236,026 17 Kansas 2,199 64,077 18 California 2,139 842,054 19 Alabama 2,137 105,161 20 Minnesota 2,125 120,212 21 North Dakota 2,124 16,256 22 Montana 2,121 22,917 23 Mississippi 2,102 62,351 24 Georgia 2,007 214,988 25 Delaware 1,961 19,355 26 South Dakota 1,957 17,468 27 Nevada 1,927 60,462 28 Nebraska 1,909 36,991 29 Ohio 1,850 216,363 30 Indiana 1,783 120,453 31 Kentucky 1,780 79,673 32 Florida 1,769 384,556 33 Iowa 1,698 53,725 34 Pennsylvania 1,644 210,167 35 Wyoming 1,611 9,379 36 Maryland 1,610 97,487 37 Connecticut 1,565 55,670 38 Illinois 1,559 196,287 39 Wisconsin 1,486 86,654 40 Virginia 1,456 125,114 41 New York 1,411 272,788 42 West Virginia 1,399 24,976 43 Michigan 1,361 135,633 44 Rhode Island 1,246 13,166 45 Vermont 1,217 7,586 46 New Jersey 1,158 102,875 47 Maine 1,156 15,610 48 Idaho 1,112 20,313 49 New Hampshire 1,099 15,014 50 Massachusetts 1,053 72,602
This article was originally published on TheCenterSquare.com on December 30, 2021.