Smooth Criminal: 8 of the Most Common Crimes in the United States

While you may always hear that crime is a major problem in the United States. It's helpful to know the truth about crime stats. 

Despite what you hear, crime has fallen in the U.S. over the past quarter-century. That's not only minor and common crimes listed here. But, also serious violent crime has seen a steep decline.

Nevertheless, there remain common crimes that occur on a regular basis across the country. Have you ever wondered what are the most common crimes? Check out the below blog post to discover which types of crime you need to know about.

1. Driving Under the Influence 

Alcohol is consumed by around 85 percent of Americans. However, it should be consumed responsibly. 

Even though it has declined over time, driving under the influence of alcohol is still a common crime. This is extremely dangerous because it can significantly increase the number of car accidents.

It doesn't matter what method you use to try to sober yourself up. Grabbing a cup of coffee or having a cold shower. Nothing works!

If you have been drinking alcohol, you need to wait until the alcohol has left your system before getting into your vehicle to drive. 

How common is drink driving? Every 51 minutes someone is killed as a result of drinking driving in the United States. That's more than 27 lives lost every day. 

Just because you don't get caught the first time, doesn't mean you won't get found out when you do it next time. 

2. Larceny

Larceny is a crime of taking someone else's personal property. While this could also be under theft, larceny only includes tangible property.

While there are many types of property crime, larceny is the most common. There are approximately 5.2 million cases of reported cases of larceny in the United States in 2018.

Just as with any other crime, the rate of crime continues to decline overall in the U.S. every year. This is also the case with larceny. 

For example, compared with 2005, there were almost 1.5 million more cases of larceny reported to the police. 

3. Possession of Drugs 

The war on drugs isn't over yet. The number of people arrested for drug possessions continues to be incredibly high at the moment. 

Whether it's a private amount of marijuana or a bit of crack cocaine, you could be arrested for the possession of an illegal substance.

In fact, around every 25 seconds, someone is arrested in the U.S. for the possession of illegal drugs.

Over 1.3 million people were arrested in 2015 for the possession of drugs. This has been a steady rise since the 1980s. 

That means that around one-fifth of the total number of people in the U.S. prisons is serving a sentence for drug-related crimes. 

4. Vandalism

Vandalism can be anything from spraying graffiti on a public building or the breaking of someone's windows. 

The good news is that vandalism is down. However, there are concerns that criminals have simply switched to more violent crimes against people.

Up to 14 percent of U.S. households claim to have been a victim of vandalism. This disgraceful behavior needs to be tackled.

Any first time offenders of vandalism need to think carefully about stopping the life of crime and getting on the straight and narrow.

5. Fraud

From stealing your identity to swindling you out of your money, there are numerous ways that people can commit fraud.

Fraud is always changing as new technologies emerge. At the moment, ID fraud is the fastest-growing type of fraud. 

Other common scams include investment scams or telephone scams. It's usually anything that attempts to trick you for financial gain.

There can be heavy consequences for anyone committing fraud. But, there are many factors that can determine how seriously the crime is considered.

6. Crime to Property

Even though we have already mentioned larceny as property crime, there are many other types. These include arson and grand theft auto.

Only 5 percent of residential building fires are caused by someone intentionally set it on fire. The crime can certainly result in imprisonment. 

And yet, the rate of property crime has fallen by 54 percent between 1993 and 2018. And yet, it remains more common than violent crime.

7. Assault

Assaults are considered a violent crime in the U.S. and they are treated very seriously by the authorities. 

Many assaults are also done with the use of a weapon. This could be a knife or a firearm. But, in many cases, the weapon is something else.

There were more than 180,000 aggravated assaults in the U.S. in the year 2018. Unfortunately, this continues to be much higher than many Americans would expect.

8. Disorderly Conduct

Disorderly conduct is often considered a "catch-all" charge. It doesn't necessarily have to be supported by significant evidence.

So, what is "disorderly conduct" then? Behavior that could be considered to be disorderly conduct may include drunkenly behavior in public or disturbing the peace.

These activities may result in a misdemeanor or violation. This could result in someone being charged for a criminal act.

What are the Most Common Crimes?

Have you, or someone you know, been charged with a crime? It may be helpful to know which are the most common crimes in the United States.

Violent crimes, such as murder and rape, are usually the most widely reported crimes by the media. And yet, the reality is that they are far from the most common.

Do you want to discover more blog posts like this one to learn about crime and other things? Check out our blog for much more!