Youth and white collar crimes are on the rise, posing new
challenges to police and society, according to the Ministry of
Public Security yesterday.
"More than 75 percent of robbery and looting cases were
committed by those aged between 14 and 25," Wu Heping, the
ministry's newly appointed?spokesperson, said yesterday while
announcing crime figures for the first half of the year.
In the same period, Internet crime such as identity theft also
increased rapidly, he said.
But many serious crimes decreased: arson (4,585 cases),
intentional explosions (543), homicide (11,000) and rape (15,000)
were all down year-on-year by 21, 17.7, 13.6 and 5.8 percent
respectively.
There were 253,000 robbery and looting cases during the first
six months, accounting for 12 percent of a total of 2.13 million
criminal cases.
As to the reasons behind the growth in youth crime, one
prosecutor who deals with such cases suggested that ill-treatment
or lack of proper guidance at home could lead teenagers astray, as
could negative influences from TV programs and computer games.
Wu said police departments and people from all walks of life
need to make a concerted effort to curb the increase in youth and
other types of crime.
The spokesperson said there had been improvements in fire and
road accidents, which cause the largest number of fatalities;
though 136,000 fires and 229,000 road accidents claimed the lives
of 1,513 and 46,000 people respectively, this was down 6.7 and 7.1
percent year-on-year.
The number of vehicle-theft cases rose significantly during the
period, and 243 vehicle theft gangs were busted. Wu said many
criminals are good at disabling alarms and are equipped with master
keys.
"The best way to deal with such cases is to undermine the market
and block channels for stolen vehicles," he said.
(China Daily August 12, 2005)