Burglary

In 1996 the average maximum sentence for those receiving incarceration for burglary was forty-one months. Twenty-nine percent of all convicted burglars, however, received no jail or prison sentence whatsoever, receiving instead probation.

Burglary rates have been dropping significantly in the last twenty years. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the amount of burglaries being committed per capita in the United States has declined by over one third since the late 1970s (measuring the number of "household" burglaries). Nevertheless, the Department of Justice reports that in 1998 alone there were 4.1 million "household" burglaries in the United States.

Another survey reports that in 1996 more burglaries occurred during daylight hours than at night, and overwhelmingly in urban settings. Additionally, burglaries represented only 1 percent of all felony convictions nationwide (Statistical Abstract of the United States).