Violent crimes grow 4.7% as gov’t calls Macau mostly safe

Violent crimes in Macau increased by 4.7% last year, led by a significant growth in cases of rape, according to statistics issued by the Office of the Secretary for Security.

According to the data, rape crimes increased by 43% to 43 cases in total, while theft and kidnapping crimes recorded an increase of 15% and 8% respectively.

Last year, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported that two schoolgirls were raped in two separate cases by a janitor and one of the girls’ fathers. The cases, although unrelated, were both reported during a similar period of time and involved six-year-old children.

Meanwhile, the statistics show that the occurrence of general crime decreased by 1.3% in 2019 compared to 2018, meaning that “security situation remained stable in general,” according to the office.

In 2019, the PJ opened 14,178 criminal investigations in total, which translates to a drop of 1.3% compared to 2018. “Violent crimes,” “crimes against property” and “crimes not classified in other groups” registered slight increases, however.

Last year, overall fraud crimes also increased by 27.6% compared to 2018, of which casinos contributed the largest proportion. Cybercrime decreased nearly 30% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, 456 cases of fraud related to gambling were registered, an increase of 209 cases compared to a year earlier.

Most of these were related to the illegal exchange of currency, where the victims exposed themselves individually to the criminal actions of the suspects and were fooled by counterfeit currency or falsifying proof of transfer and remittance of funds.

The SAR also recorded the highest total face value of counterfeit gaming chips in the city’s casinos last year, which reached nearly HKD18.5 million – the highest tally in the last three years.

Although the data did not provide a breakdown of the distribution of the gaming chips, 176 of them carried a face value of HKD100,000, while 158 of them were worth HKD5,000. The others were worth HKD10,000, HKD1,000 and HKD500.

There was a total of 2,157 crimes related to fake currency, representing an increase of 14.5%, compared to last year’s 1,884 cases.

Meanwhile, cases of gaming-related usury increased by 8.7%, reaching 602 cases in total compared to 54 cases last year.

According to the office, the suspects and the alleged victims in the majority of the cases were people from outside Macau.

The statement said that “cross-border criminal groups” accounted for some of the loan sharking activities related to gambling recorded last year.

The office recalled its collaboration with Zhuhai authorities to combat the loan sharking groups in October and November, 2019, which led to the confiscation of HKD5.5 million and HKD400,000 of alleged criminal funds.