Package Theft and Cybercrime Are Now the Most Common Crimes in America

When Americans think about crime, they tend to picture the most extreme scenarios — violent assaults, gun violence, and the kinds of incidents that dominate national headlines. But those crimes, while serious, aren’t what most people actually experience.

Instead, the most common crimes in America are far more routine — and far more widespread. According to SafeWise State of Safety survey data, more than a third of Americans report experiencing package theft or cybercrime, far outpacing violent crime.

That gap between perception and reality reveals something important: the crimes shaping everyday life in America don’t look like the ones leading the news cycle. And that mismatch is changing how people think about safety — and how they try to protect themselves.

The data paints a clear — and somewhat surprising — picture of crime in America. Today, the most common experiences aren’t violent incidents, but everyday disruptions tied to modern life:

• 37% of Americans report experiencing package theft
• 33% report experiencing cybercrime
• 27% report experiencing property crime
• 14% report experiencing violent crime

In other words, Americans are more than twice as likely to deal with stolen deliveries or online scams than with violent crime.

This reflects a broader shift in where and how crime happens. As more of daily life moves online—and more goods are delivered directly to people’s homes—crime has followed.

Instead of isolated, high-profile incidents, many Americans now face:

• Repeated package thefts from their doorstep
• Ongoing scam attempts or fraud
• Account breaches and digital theft

These aren’t one-time events. They’re recurring, low-level disruptions that affect millions of people — and often happen multiple times a year.

For many Americans, package theft isn’t a rare event — it’s something they’ve come to expect.

According to our most recent data, 37% of Americans report experiencing package theft, making it one of the most common forms of crime in the country.

In some states, the problem is even more widespread. Nearly half of Washington residents (48%) report experiencing package theft, followed closely by New Mexico and Colorado (47% each).

At the other end of the spectrum, states like Vermont (29%) and South Dakota (30%) report significantly lower rates — but even there, nearly 1 in 3 residents have dealt with stolen deliveries.

What makes package theft unique is how normalized it has become:

• Deliveries are frequent and often left unattended
• Incidents are rarely reported or recovered
• Many victims experience it more than once

As a result, package theft isn’t just a crime — it’s a recurring friction point in everyday life, especially as e-commerce continues to grow.

If package theft reflects how crime has moved to the doorstep, cybercrime shows how it has moved fully online.

Today, 33% of Americans report experiencing cybercrime, from scams and fraud to account breaches and identity theft.

In some states, the impact is even more pronounced:

• Utah leads the nation at 48%
• Kansas and Wyoming follow at 44%
• Several other states report rates above 40%

Meanwhile, states like South Carolina and Texas (23%) report lower — but still significant — levels of cybercrime exposure.

Unlike traditional crime, cybercrime:

• Can happen anywhere, regardless of location
• Often targets the same individuals repeatedly
• Is frequently underreported

And because it happens digitally, it can feel less visible — even as it affects a growing share of the population.

The result is a new kind of risk landscape, where crime is constant, distributed, and increasingly tied to how people live, shop, and connect online.

If these crimes are so widespread, why don’t they dominate the national conversation?

Because attention doesn’t follow frequency — it follows severity.

Violent crimes are less common, but they’re:

• More dangerous
• More emotionally charged
• More likely to generate sustained media coverage

Meanwhile, the most common crimes — like package theft and cybercrime — are:

• Non-violent
• Often underreported
• Spread across millions of smaller incidents

That makes them easy to overlook, even as they affect a growing share of Americans.

There’s also a tracking problem. Many everyday crimes fall into gray areas:

• Package theft isn’t consistently reported or categorized — it gets lumped in with larceny-theft (if it's recorded at all)
• Cybercrime often goes unreported or is handled outside traditional law enforcement
• Repeat incidents blur into the background of daily life

The result is a distorted perception of risk — where the crimes people fear most aren’t always the ones they’re most likely to experience.

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