SWS: Victims of common crimes at ‘record-low’ 6.1% in 2017

The average rate of families who fell victim to common crimes in the country declined to a “record-low” 6.1 percent in 2017, a nationwide Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey disclosed on Friday.

The survey, which was conducted from December 8 to 16, showed that about 7.6 percent, or 1.7 million families, fell victim to physical violence, pickpockets, burglars, and or carnappers in the past six months.

But while it was 1.5 percentage points higher than the 6.1 percent, or 1.4 million families, who claimed to have been victimized in the September 2017 survey, the resulting annual average for 2017 was still a “record-low” 6.1 percent, the SWS explained.

“Due to the record-low 3.7 percent quarterly victimization rate in June 2017, the resulting annual average victimization by any of the common crimes for 2017 was a record-low 6.1 percent,” the SWS said in a statement.

“This is 2.1 points below the 8.2% annual average in 2016, and 0.7 point below the previous record-low annual average of 6.8% in 2015,” the survey firm further explained.

The SWS also noted that victimization by common crimes reported in its surveys was much higher than the number of crimes actually reported to police.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide, the SWS said. It has a margin of error of ±3% nationwide, ±4% for Luzon, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. /kga