CrimeMalta Observatory annual crime review : year 2018

Abstract

2018 crime figures depict a major reduction in crime reports which follow a year on the stabilisation in reported crimes as published in the Annual Crime Report of 2017. The year 2018 saw a major decrease in the number of crimes over the previous year dropping by 7% or 1211 crimes amounting to a reduction of a count of 101 crimes per month, this being the largest decrease since 2009. The Maltese offence profile has maintained the past three years’ shift from a public-oriented to a personal-target structure with an increasing focus on financial-related offences. Crime has evolved to one where bodily harm has been pushed further down the league due to a relatively large increase in fraud. Displacement is also very evident as the migration of crimes from one zone to another becomes more pronounced. San Giljan’s rate of crime dropped from a height of 19.5 in 2012 to 10.6% in 2017 and again to 9.4% in 2018, a drop of 18% from 2017, the lowest in the last 14 years. Malta maintained a generic lower than EU average across most crime categories. In terms of societal reaction, moral panic still plays a part in rendering a perception that crime is increasing, when the facts depict a stabilised scenario. In terms of predicted crimes for 2018, with a drastic increase in resident population and also the number of tourists, the difference between the expected and observed crimes was lower, indicating that the number of crimes that should have occurred during the year, did not occur, resulting in a safer scenario. Victims are mainly Maltese residents, aged falling within the 40-59 year cohort. Victims aged less than 18 years fell to 3.3%.