ABSTRACT
Economic and property crimes (burglary, theft, fraud, white-collar crime, organized crime, and arson) are by far the most common forms of criminal activity, accounting for 90% of all crimes and costing individuals, businesses, and governments hundreds of billions of dollars in direct financial losses each year. The indirect costs cannot be measured in dollars alone. These crimes, and fear of falling victim to them, keep people home at night, raise insurance premiums and taxes, and foster distrust in business and government. In this chapter, we examine economic and property offenses that are Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) index crimes-arson, burglary, larceny theft, motor vehicle theft-as well as fraud, occupational, organizational, and syndicated crime, which are categories not covered by the UCR.
