The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Monday, October 16, that the incidence of motor vehicle thefts grew by more than 8% countrywide. This led to the theft of almost a million cars with a combined value of over $20 billion in the United States.
Statistics from hundreds of police departments around the nation were used to compile the agency's 2022 Crime in the Nation report, which offered insights into emerging crime patterns.
2021-2022 Data Comparison
In 2022, among the 93.5% of law enforcement agencies (total of 15,724) that provide their statistics with the FBI, police issued 1,213,913 charges connected to motor vehicle thefts.
Meanwhile, the FBI reported 636,941 car theft-related violations in 2021. However, a previous press statement from the FBI said that in 2021, just 76% of US police agencies shared data with the bureau.
The government said it was able to compensate for data gaps from the previous year, and the result was an estimated 8.6% rise in auto thefts and 8.1% increase in carjackings.
In 2022, police made about 70,000 arrests for car theft, with 2,000 of those suspects having firearms on them at the time of their capture.
Vehicle thefts on college campuses increased sharply from 2,700 in 2021 to 4,900 the following year, reflecting trends seen at the national level.
Instances Based on Figures
According to Fox News, about 78.3% of the roughly 69,600 people arrested for auto theft whose ages and sexes were reported to the FBI were male. Among the alleged car thieves, 18.2% were males under the age of 18. Approximately 26% of the overall data consisted of men aged 35 to 64.
Meanwhile, women between the ages of 25 and 34 committed the most vehicle thefts of any age group, making up 31% of the roughly 15,100 vehicle thefts committed by women and 8% of the overall thefts.
The total value of the automobiles reported stolen to the FBI was over $21 billion, as shown by the bureau's records. Of that total, law enforcement agencies were able to restore over $8 billion to their rightful owners, or around 38%.
The number of carjackings, or car thefts using physical force, rose from an expected 23,500 in 2021 to an estimated 25,400 in 2022. In at least 22,700 of 2022's carjackings, a weapon was used.
The bureau noted that the hours between 8:00 PM and 4:00 AM saw almost half of all carjackings.
The number of carjackings when two or more suspects were apprehended increased by 13%, suggesting that more criminals are working in gangs.
According to the numbers, there were a total of over 6 million property-related charges filed with the police in 2022, a 7.1% rise over 2021. The agency also reported a 7.8% rise in larceny. However, the rate of burglaries showed little change.
Although there was an increase in property crimes, overall violent crime decreased by 1.7% in the previous year, according to the figures.
The agency calculated a 6.1% decrease in homicides and a 5.4% drop in rapes between 2021 and the present. The rate of aggravated assaults decreased by just 1.1%.
