Families victimized by common crimes down to 5.6% — SWS

MANILA, Philippines — An estimated 1.4 million Filipino families (5.6 percent) reported being victimized by common crimes in the last six months, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed Wednesday.

This was a 1.4-point decrease from the 7 percent or estimated 1.7 million families who reported the same in June 2019 and the lowest since the 5.3 percent result in June 2018.

SWS said common crimes included pickpocket or robbery of personal property, break-ins, carnapping, and physical violence, among others.

The survey showed that 5.2 percent or around 1.3 million families said they were victimized by property crimes in the last six months; 3.4 percent or around 846,000 families said they were victimized by street robbery; 2.6 percent or around 640,000 families said they were victimized by break-ins; and 0.5 percent or 133,000 families said they had members of their household who was victimized by physical violence.

In terms of location, the survey noted the following:

• Street robberies fall in the Visayas, Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, up slightly in Mindanao
• Break-ins down in the Visayas, Metro Manila and Balance Luzon, up slightly in Mindanao
• Carnapping case down in Metro Manila, zero case in the Visayas, up slightly in Balance Luzon and Mindanao
• Cases of physical violence down in Mindanao and Balance Luzon, steady in Metro Manila, up slightly in the Visayas

Fear of burglary, unsafe streets, and visibility of drug addicts

The survey also showed that some 59 percent of adults agree that people in their respective neighborhoods usually fear that robbers might break into their house.

Further, 47 percent agreed that agree that people in their respective neighborhoods usually fear that robbers might break into their house while 38 percent said that very many people are addicted to banned drugs in their neighborhood.

The September 2019 Social Weather Survey was conducted from September 27-30, 2019 using face-to-face interviews of 1,800 adults, with sampling error margins of ±2.3% for national percentages.