Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1493026
maltatoday | SUNDAY •19 FEBRUARY 2023 8 INTERVIEW Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt Perceptions of crime are 'inversely In MaltaToday's latest sur- vey, 'criminality' emerged as among the top five concerns of the Maltese people, for the first time ever. And yet the Cri- meMalta Observatory report for 2023 suggests that (in your own words): "The figures ren- der the islands very safe, where crimes declined from 45 crimes per 1000 persons in 2004 […] to 28 crimes per 1000 persons in 2022, the lowest on record." How do you account for this dis- crepancy? Are we 'imagining', that Malta has become more dangerous than it actually is? Let me start with that Malta- Today survey. First of all, what it actually measured was peo- ple's perceptions; and even then, people's perceptions about three separate domains: criminal jus- tice; the law courts; and crimi- nality. Those three domains are all connected, naturally; but they are not interchangeable. So if you lump them all together un- der a single headline – which refers to only one of those do- mains, 'Criminality' – the results can be misleading. For instance, if people are angry with the law- courts (and, let's face it: many people are); in the survey, it will appear as though they are 'angry at all three'. Take the recent Pelin Kaya case, for example. On that occa- sion, the police were at the scene of the crime, within minutes of it actually happening. They weren't already at that location, to begin with; they had to get there, from St Julian's. But they responded to a call; they arrived within minutes; and they took decisive action, when they got there. Now: other people were also present, at the time… filming those police officers, while they were tasering the suspect. And when those videos were up- loaded online – with the result that the footage was instantly accessible to everyone in the entire country: within literally just minutes of the crime having been committed - the comments beneath were mostly along the lines of: "Now that the police have shown themselves to be 'up to scratch'… let's hope the law- courts don't mess it up!" This is why those three do- mains should not be confused. Because apart from the fact that members of the Police Force were actually seen – in the Pe- lin Kaya case – behaving very professionally, in difficult cir- cumstances… when it comes to perceptions, there was a paral- lel study published yesterday by the NSO, which shows that 'trust in the Police Force' has actually increased, in recent years. But while the domain of the Police seems to be 'finding its feet' – largely, as a result of a transformation strategy within the Force: including the intro- duction of community polic- ing; the availability of more ad- vanced technologies; and so on – the law-courts are still clearly lagging behind. And the crimi- nal justice system still needs to be upgraded… If I'm understanding you cor- rectly: when people say they are 'concerned with crime'… they are also referring to their own private complaints about the 'inefficiency of the law- courts', etc.? That is what the MaltaToday survey told me, yes. Having said that, though: it doesn't mean that people are not, in fact, con- cerned about what they perceive to be an increase in crime. It is true that surveys gener- ally indicate that 'concern with criminality' has, in fact, gone up over the years. And this is per- haps inevitable: because surveys are based on perceptions; and perceptions are inversely pro- portional to what is happening on the ground… Hang on: by 'inversely propor- tional', do you mean to sug- gest that people's perceptions of criminality, are not just 'wrong'… but actually the op- posite of reality? In this case, definitely. If you look at the actual statistics, you will find that crime is on the decline in Malta. Crimes such as pick-pocketing, for instance – which spiked in Malta, a few years ago - have decreased to record lows; largely thanks to police action. The same goes for thefts from residences, and so on. Holistically, year on year, the crime rate is decreasing. I think this is the fifth consecutive year, in which there has been a decline. Today, the statistic stands at '14,133 reported crimes in a year': the lowest it's ever been. Still sounds like quite a lot, to me… Well, that's because it IS a lot. Especially when you consider that those 14,133 crimes also left victims in their wake; and some of those 14,133 crimes might have had multiple victims, not just one. So it's no joke, at the end of the day. And this, too, may af- fect public perceptions of crime. For even if the number of re- ported crimes is actually on the decline… crimes are still being committed; and people still fear for their own safety, as a conse- quence. Meanwhile, another reason is the fact that the category we re- fer to as 'petty crime' – includ- ing pickpocketing, simple theft, damage to private property, etc. – is the one that has decreased, the most. And as these 'commonplace' crimes decrease, what's left – namely, more serious crime, of the kind that has always been there – will become more prom- inent, as a result. This is further compounded by the impact of certain 'one-off' crimes – and here, once again, the murder of Pelin Kaya remains a classic ex- ample (though it is not the only one). Don't get me wrong; it's not as though I don't understand the public reactions. It was indeed a horrible crime, by any standards: a young woman, mowed down in the prime of life, by a drug- fuelled driver, who was – by his own admission – just out look- ing for 'media attention'… As such, the reactions of shock and horror were entirely justi- fied… when looking at that case, in isolation. At the same time, however: you cannot conclude – on the basis of that one case, alone - that 'murder is going up, across the board'. Because what Malta's homicide statistics really tell us is that… let me put it this way: the mur- der rate varies greatly, from year to year. There was one particular year, when it stood at 'zero'. In another, it was '12'; and at oth- er times, it might be 'six'; then A spate of violent crimes has arguably made Malta feel a lot 'less safe' than ever before. Yet criminologist Prof. SAVIOUR FORMOSA – who heads the CrimeMalta Observatory – argues that the very opposite is true: Malta's crime rate has actually plummeted, in recent years