DLE 1224: INTRODUCTION TO CRIME & SOCIETY

CHAPTER 2: MEASUREMENT OF
CRIME
Development of crime trends in Malaysia
Development of crime trends in Malaysia
From simple theft to organized, simple wayside robbery, physical
injuries caused by direct confrontation to that of syndicated,
organized crimes, gang robbery and complex borderless crimes.
Now is more complex and sometimes impossible to detect
Criminals armed with knowledge of investigations to avoid getting
caught by police.
White collar crime (financially motivated crimes by professionals)
become trans-border with its transactions taking place internationally
causing jurisdiction problems.
 No perfect methodology
to show the full picture of
crime.
What is known/reported
is equal or less than what
is hidden.
Even though crime is
committed everyday, not
every single crime is
reported by the public
and recorded by the
police.
Measures of Crime
1.Official crime statistics which are based on the total records of
offender and offences processed by the police, courts and prison
agencies.
2.Unofficial crime statistics which are produced from surveys outside
the criminal justice system.
Question: Why do you think that many crimes are left unreported?
Why are there dark figures?
Definition of crime varies between societies, culture and values.
Issue of detection
Decision to report a crime depends on:
Place it is committed
Identity of the offender
Whether appropriate to be reported
Women hide cases of domestic violence
Depends on diligence and accuracy of the criminal justice system.
Police discretion, sometimes police downgrade the offences to meet
the target.
In 2004, out of all the police reports made by
the public, only 14% (252,427 out of
1,797,105) were investigated by police.
How is crime measured?
Index Crime to quantify crime used by the RMP.
Index crime: Crimes that are reported with sufficient regularity and
with sufficient significance to be meaningful as an index to the crime
situation.
Offences that are regular/frequent and common in occurrence.
For example, kidnapping is not common but a big offence, it is not
included as a statistic in the index.
However, snatch theft (ragut) is a small gravity offence but is included
in the index.
Index Crime Category 1: Violent Crimes
Murder
Rape
Robbery with firearm
Robbery without firearm
Gang robbery with firearm
Gang robbery without firearm
Voluntarily causing grievous hurt
Question: Which type of violent crime is the highest reported in
Malaysia?
Index Crime Category 2: Property Crime
Loss of property with no use of violence
Housebreaking and theft by day
Housebreaking and theft by night
Theft of lorries and van
Theft of motor car
Theft of motorcycles and scooters
Theft of bicycles
Other forms of theft
Factors of increasing crime rate (UK)
Increase of reporting rather than crime
More access to telephones
Easier to report
Insurance require police report for claiming.
Lower tolerance of domestic violence
More comfortable in contacting police
Urbanization
Loosening social controls (abandonment of religion and tradional
moral codes)
Factors of increasing crime rate (UK)
Prosperity (more things to steal)
Relative poverty (inequality)
Exclusion ethnic minorities.
Increasing levels of drug misuse and offending to support addictions.
Factors of increasing crime rate (Malaysia)
Urbanization and population density
Unemployment
75% convicted criminals did so because of unemployment and difficulty in
finding a higher paying job.
Indians form a major contributor in gangsterism and gang related
activities Why? Manifestations of urban poverty.
Influx of illegal workers more prone to commit violent crimes
Narcotics/drug to sustain their drug habits
Motor vehicle theft if this theft is reduced, it will reduce the index
crime rate.
Discussion
Do you think Malaysia/your city is a safe place to live in?
Do you walk alone at night in your area?
What other reasons can you give on why the crime rate increase.
How can we reduce crime? With harsher punishment or better
education?
THANK YOU
THANK YOU
 References:
Jianhong Liu, Bill Hebenton, Susyan Jou (2012) Handbook of Asian Criminology