The Right to Security of the Person/Crime
1. No significant difference was observed between respondents who
reported knowing a victim of crime between 2011 (20.8%) and 2019
(21.7%).
2. Fewer migrant workers reported knowing a victim of crime, with a fall
from 15.8% in 2011 to 4.1% in 2019
3. Two thirds of people (74.9%) who reported knowing a victim of a crime
were below the age of 39 years old
4. A quarter of those who reported knowing a victim of crime, recalled
that it was a member of their own community, while 14.0% said it was a
neighbour, and 13.5% stated it was a member of their household.
5. Most of the respondents identified victims of crimes as male (45.3%)
while 17.3% indicated that the victim was a female.
6. The high (37.4%) non-response rate (as opposed to 18.0% in 2011)
contributes to the decline in the number of people who reported that the
victim was male and those who reported the victim as female, compared
to 2011.
7. 31.6% stated the age of the victim to be between 19-34 years. Almost
half (49.6%) of these respondents were from urban regions as opposed
to 23.7% from the outer islands.
8. 40.7% of people believe there has been a significant increase in crime.
9. The number of respondents who believed that the crime rate has
increased, rose from 52.6% in 2011 to 60.0% in 2019. Similar to the
findings of 2011, more women (45.0%) than men (33.0%) consider crime
rate to have greatly increased.
10. More people living in urban areas (55.2%) reported an increase in crime
compared to those in the outer islands (31.7%).
11. People in the 60-69 age group are of the opinion that the crime rate has
greatly increased (58.7%), in contrast to 2011 where people in the 40-49
age group held this belief.
12. The other diverging finding is that 41.6% of people over the age of 70
were concerned that crime rate has increased when the previous survey
found that people belonging to this age group were least concerned
about crime rates.
13. Most respondents believe substance abuse is the main cause fuelling an
increase in crime (19.2%).
14. 11.2% of the respondents believe gangs to be the second most influential
factor for the increase in crime.
15. 28.2% of the respondents said that everyone, including the executive,
parliament, judiciary, other state institutions, oversight bodies such as
HRCM and parents along with the general public, is responsible for the
increase in crime.
16. 19.7% of the respondents identified the government as a whole and the
police (16.3%) as institutions that should be held accountable for the
inability to prevent crimes.
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