Highlights
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According to the most recent report from the FBI in 2023, overall property crime, which includes burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft, has decreased by 2.4 percent, totaling approximately 6.4 million reported incidents.
However, the FBI reports a significant (33 percent) rise in cybercrime, a category that falls within property crime.
Such reports indicate a dramatic increase in porch theft, cargo theft, and retail theft.
This raises questions about the accuracy of the FBI’s assertion regarding property crime trends.
Is it time to reconsider how we gather and present federal crime data?
Author
Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.
Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention and Statistics at the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of Criminology and Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, University College. Retired police officer and federal senior spokesperson.
Advisor to various presidential and gubernatorial campaigns, including the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media initiative. He has crafted successful state anti-crime media campaigns.
Sipes brings over thirty-five years of award-winning public relations experience for national and state criminal justice agencies, having been interviewed extensively by national media regarding crime statistics and research. He pioneered state and federal podcasting and produced a distinctive government proactive public relations approach.
Trained under a Certificate of Advanced Study from The Johns Hopkins University.
Author of “Success With The Media: Everything You Need to Survive Reporters and Your Organization,” available on Amazon and at other booksellers.
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Quote
“Interestingly, Americans are nearly four times more likely to perceive crime as a national issue than a personal one. We are a society intrigued by videos of criminal activities.” Slate.
Article
The focus of this article is the recent 2024 FBI report on cybercrime, while simultaneously challenging the FBI’s claim of a 2.4 percent decrease in overall property crime in 2023. The trend of property crime has also reportedly declined significantly during the first half of 2024, according to the FBI.
This article will encompass increased cargo, porch, and retail theft data for perspective but will primarily compare the two contrasting FBI reports on property crime and cybercrime.
Cybercrime
Readers will find a thorough overview of the latest cybercrime statistics from various agencies, which is essential for this conversation. Given the differing years and measurement types, comparisons can be tricky.
The article aims to scrutinize the conflicting messages from the FBI that indicate property crime is decreasing while simultaneously reporting a substantial increase in cybercrime. How can there be a 33 percent rise in one sector while overall property crime is said to be declining?
The short answer: the FBI’s definition of property crime does not currently encompass cybercrime. Should this change?
To provide context, various reports from the US Department of Justice (Bureau of Justice Statistics) and Gallup are included in this article.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only about 7 percent of cybercrime incidents are reported to law enforcement.
Refer to the appendix for the USDOJ definitions of “cybercrime.” This broad category encompasses numerous criminal acts, including forms of cyber sex crimes as stated in FBI data.
USA Today
USA Today: “Scammers and cybercriminals stole an unprecedented $16.6 billion from Americans in 2024, which marks a 33% increase in losses from 2023, according to a major FBI report issued on April 23.”
“The report from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) declared that this staggering figure is likely an underrepresentation of the total losses attributed to cyber-enabled fraud and scams, as noted by Cynthia Kaiser, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber Division. This amount only represents complaints registered by victims with the IC3,” the officials confirmed.
“In 2024, the IC3 received 859,532 complaints regarding scams, fraud, and various suspected internet crimes. Most reported losses—nearly 83%—stemmed from cyber-enabled fraud, often involving the theft of money, sensitive data, identity, or the production of counterfeit goods or services,” as per the report.
The FBI Releases Annual Internet Crime Report
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has just published its latest annual report. The 2024 Internet Crime Report aggregates details from 859,532 complaints about suspected online crime, amounting to reported losses surpassing $16 billion—an increase of 33% from 2023.
The three most common cyber crimes reported in 2024 were phishing/spoofing, extortion, and personal data breaches. Victims of investment fraud, particularly involving cryptocurrency, suffered the greatest financial losses, totaling over $6.5 billion.
The report indicated that California, Texas, and Florida received the most complaints, with victims over 60 years old suffering the highest financial losses—nearly $5 billion—and submitting the most complaints.
Previous FBI Cybercrime Report
Since 2019, there has been a drastic surge in cybercrimes. Cybercrime losses have accumulated to $37 billion since 2019, costing Americans significantly more financially and emotionally than street or property crimes.
Bureau Of Justice Statistics Cybercrime Report
The Bureau of Justice Statistics relies on the National Crime Victimization Survey for crime statistics, while the FBI only accounts for reported crimes. It’s important to consider that many crimes go unreported.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, approximately 24 million individuals experienced identity theft during the preceding twelve months in 2021, incurring a loss of $15.1 billion. This exceeds both the 4 million cybercrime victims (who incurred losses of $14 billion) reported by the FBI between 2019 and 2023 and the 14 million general crime victims identified by the FBI in 2022.
Gallup Cybercrime Report
According to Gallup (2021), beyond the 23% of households victimized by violent and property crimes, 28% of households reported having their credit card stolen by hackers, and 17% experienced identity theft.
How Many Cybercrimes Are Reported To Law Enforcement?
For identity theft cases, only about 7 percent of incidents are reported, as noted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
FBI Overall Property Crimes in 2023 – Crimes Reported To Law Enforcement
The FBI stated that around 6.4 million property crimes were reported in the United States in 2023, which includes offenses like burglary, larceny-theft, and vehicle theft, reflecting a 2.4% decrease from 2022. Notably, cyber crimes were omitted from this count. The last published figure for property crime losses dates to 2019, estimating $15.8 billion in losses.
Despite the lack of an official figure for total property crime losses in 2023, a report from Deep Sentinel estimates those losses to be approximately $280.5 billion, including various offenses such as burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.
FBI Overall Property Crime Statistics for The First Half of 2024
Reported property crime has decreased by 13.1 percent.
Other Property Crimes Are Showing Dramatic Increases
Cargo Theft: In 2024, Verisk CargoNet recorded 3,798 cargo theft incidents, marking a 26% increase from 2023.
The total reported losses exceeded nearly $455 million, according to Verisk CargoNet, although experts suggest that the actual figure could exceed $1 billion annually, as many incidents go unreported. Train cargo thefts alone saw a 40% increase in 2024, with over 65,000 reported incidents, according to the Association of American Railroads.
120 Million Porch Package Thefts—Surpassing Total FBI Property Crimes: The US averages 120 million porch package thefts annually, with searches for “stolen package” peaking every December, according to Google Trends.
Research indicated that there are considerably more porch thefts than total reported property crimes by the FBI, with an estimated financial impact of $16 billion.
Retail Shrink: organized retail crime incidents hit $94.5 billion in 2021, a 53% increase from 2019, per the National Retail Federation’s annual report involving approximately 60 retail companies. Data from various sources suggest a continuous rise in shoplifting losses.
The National Retail Federation reported that losses attributed to shrink reached $112.1 billion in 2022, a 19% rise compared to the previous year.
Conclusions
As a crime commentator, I can attest to the complexities inherent in national crime statistics.
In 2025, the FBI noted a 33 percent increase in reported cybercrime incidents for 2024. In contrast, the FBI reported a 2.4 percent decrease in overall property crime for their last full report in 2023, with a further 13.1 percent decrease noted for the first six months of 2024.
Three critical points emerge from these findings: 1. There’s an alarming surge in cybercrimes; 2. The FBI’s decrease in overall property crimes is incongruent when accounting for cybercrime, and 3. Including statistics for cargo theft, porch theft, and retail crime contradicts assertions of a property crime decrease by the FBI.
It seems timely to reassess how we collect and interpret crime statistics. Those of us observing crime trends have understood for years the difficulty of accurately contextualizing violent and property crime metrics.
While the FBI has maintained consistent data over the years, to provide an indication of crime trends, re-evaluation may be called for when categorizing crime levels.
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Apendix
FBI – Cybercrime Definition and Categories
The FBI categorizes cybercrime as a broad set of criminal acts that involve computers or networks, including:
1. Computer Intrusions
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Unauthorized Access (Hacking)
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Malware Distribution (Viruses, Ransomware)
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Denial-of-Service (DoS) Attacks
2. Online Fraud and Identity Theft
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Phishing Scams
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Business Email Compromise (BEC)
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Online Auction Fraud
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Identity Theft Via Digital Means
3. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC)
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Child Exploitation (Child Pornography)
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Online Enticement
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Sextortion
4. Cyber-Enabled Financial Crimes
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Wire Fraud
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Cryptocurrency Fraud
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Online Investment Scams
5. Critical Infrastructure Attacks
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Attacks on Essential Services, Hospitals, or Government Systems via Cyber Means
The FBI typically investigates these cases through its Cyber Division, in collaboration with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) for reporting and tracking purposes.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) – Cybercrime Definition and Scope
The BJS concentrates on data collection and statistics over investigation and splits cybercrime into two primary categories:
1. Cyberattacks
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Hacking attempts, viruses, and spyware targeting networks, computers, or data
2. Cybertheft
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Crimes wherein money or sensitive information is acquired through electronic means (e.g., phishing, online credit card fraud)
The BJS also includes “other computer security incidents,” such as:
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Downtime caused by cyber incidents
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Costs incurred while responding to data breaches
The BJS often relies on surveys such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) or the Cybercrime Supplement to assess both household and business crime incidences.
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