Not sure why they are baffled, it is pretty simple. Between Madoff, Wall Street and the banks wiping out a large portion of people's money and then the taxman, government, and foreclosures/layoffs taking the rest, there is not much for criminals to steal. You have to figure theft is out of the question since large majority of population has no $$, breaking and entering is tough - since so many foreclosures.

I think the Freakonomics guys partially attribute this to the lagged effects of legal abortion: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=11470