Why are burglary clearance rates so low?

There are at least two related reasons why the clearance
rate for burglaries is relatively low.

First, the police
tend not to have the resources needed to thoroughly investigate burglaries.  These are
crimes that do not result in physical harm to human victims.  Therefore, the scarce
resources available to police departments do not tend to get used on
burglaries.

Relatedly, there is often very little evidence
that can be found at a burglary scene.  This is, in part, because police do not tend to
devote a lot of resources to trying to find evidence.  It is also the case, however,
that there are usually no witnesses and very little in the way of physical
evidence.

These two factors are important in making it very
unlikely that any given burglary will be cleared.