Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/975483
maltatoday SUNDAY 29 APRIL 2018 News 7 KARL AZZOPARDI CRIME in Malta is "visibly de- creasing", criminologist Saviour Formosa declared during the pres- entation of the 2017 annual crime report. The crime report shows a de- crease in criminality related to prostitution, abuse of public au- thority and sexual offences. How- ever, it has shown an increase in homicide, violence against public officers, and drug crimes. "Crime is visibly decreasing de- spite public perception, I am not a politician and this perception ir- ritates me. I am ready to give raw data to sustain this," Formosa said. Home Affairs minister Michael Farrugia said the report would help the police in their work by enabling stakeholders to better un- derstand patterns related to crimi- nality in Malta. "Using this report we can bet- ter understand the ways criminals operate, making targeted policing easier so we can prevent criminal- ity from occurring," Farrugia said. Farrugia said his ministry will launch a campaign that aims to educate the general public on pre- venting petty crimes such as pick- pocketing. The minister also stated that stricter policing had been de- ployed in certain localities with re- sults clearly visible in places such as St Julian's which saw a decrease of police reports from 3,100 in 2012 to 1,800 in 2017. The crime report was compiled by Saviour Formosa through the CrimeMalta Observatory and is based on data from monthly police reports. A total of 17,136 reported offenc- es were reported in 2017 showing a decrease of 162 crimes in compari- son with 2016. Mdina ranked first as being the locality most prone to criminal- ity, hosting five times the national rate of offences, pipping St Julian's which has now fallen to a close second. When asked the reason for the high rate of criminality in the tiny medieval city, Formosa said that the high concentration of tourists in the town attracts a certain type of criminality and such statistics are based upon the reports police received. When compared to other Eu- ropean Union (EU) states Malta ranks higher in frequency of theft (4th) while ranking lower than the EU average in homicide (14th), as- sault (14th), robberies (9th), bur- glary (16th), drugs (20th), sexual offences (12th), rape (15th) and sexual assault (13th). Malta also has the highest num- ber of police officers per 100,000 individuals in Europe. Formosa said that despite the expectation of an increase in crime due to the ever-growing population of both nationals and tourists, a trend of a decrease in reported crime was noted. He said that an unprecedented increase in fraud was also noticed with a 57% increase over the pre- vious year. Violence against pub- lic officers also increased with a total of 142 cases being registered. Domestic violence kept the fig- ure of 7% of all criminality with the localities of Bormla, Xghajra, Isla, Marsaxlokk and Safi being the most prone to such offences. Formosa also said that Corradino Correctional Facility, Malta's main incarceration centre, had reached its 'psychological capacity thresh- old' of 600 inmates behind bars in 2017, an increase on 46 over the previous year. When analysing the countries from which criminals originated, patterns have revealed that social, political and demographic changes all affect the source of criminality. Reported crime in St Julian's at all-time low since 2004 National crime stats show reported crime in St Julian's down to 1,800 reports from 3,100 in 2012 Criminologist Saviour Formosa (left) and Minister Michael Farrugia