Petty crime cut in first half of 2019, but violent crimes hike

General criminal activity in Macau declined 2.8% in the first six months of 2019, the security authorities announced in a report released yesterday.

However, the same report shows growth in some types of crimes, including “violent crimes” that grew 8.4% year-on-year, as well as rape crimes, which hiked 77% when compared with the same period of last year.

In the same category, crimes involving kidnapping also registered an increase of 17% and those of theft involving violence increased by as much as 12%. Homicides also doubled, having two cases registered this year compared to one in 2018.

Regarding rape cases, the Secretary noted that in the 23 cases reported, almost half of the victims were residents of Macau that claimed to have met the suspects via the internet, while the other half were cases related to non-residents that met the suspects in casinos.

This was cited by  the authorities as a reason to reinforce their patrols of gaming areas and their surroundings, as well as to strengthen its collaboration with schools on raising awareness of public and personal safety measures.

Trending in the opposite direction were cases of sexual abuse of children, which dropped by almost 55%.

Regarding crimes against property, the most significant highlights are the cases of scams and extortion, up by 16% and 17% year-on-year respectively.

Also growing significantly were the cases regarding the unlawful use of other peoples’ identity documents, which registered in the first six months of 2019 an increase from 23 to 33 cases when compared year-on-year, representing a growth of 44%.

Other types of crimes also showed growth in the first half of this year, including cybercrime (up 43%), drug consumption (up 48%) and the provision of help to illegal immigration (up 7%).

In general, the Secretary for Security mentioned that there were 196 fewer cases during the first half of 2019 than in the same period of 2018, although the criminal activities that are declining the most are cases of petty crime.

Wong also commented on offenses committed by taxi drivers, revealing that there were 524 fewer cases in the first half of 2019, a reduction of about 16%. The Secretary noted that the biggest difference was registered in the last month of the analysis (June), in which the number of cases pertaining to offenses committed by taxi drivers dropped by 79% month-on-month when compared with May.
The authorities attributed this result to the enforcement of the new taxi law from June 3, noting that they would continue to evaluate the effects of the new law.

In the report, Wong also noted that currency exchange scams and the exploitation of prostitution had been causes of major concern and had formed the basis of the most severe of the violent crimes reported during the first semester of this year, and promised to pay particular attention to these types of cases.