Fear of crimes up despite decrease in victims – SWS

More Filipinos are fearful of neighborhood crimes despite the lower number of those who have actually fallen victim to common crimes in the past six months, according to a recent survey of Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the results of the SWS survey validated government data that the campaign against illegal drugs and criminality is working effectively and efficiently, with the results being significant, palpable and meaningful.

The survey, conducted from Sept. 27 to 30 with the results released last Wednesday, showed 5.6 percent of Filipino families reporting at least one member who experienced common crimes in the past six months.

This translates to 1.4 million families, lower than the seven percent or the 1.7 million Filipinos who reported having at least one member of their family falling victim to a common crime in June 2019.

Common crimes include pickpocket or robbery of personal property, break-ins, carnapping and physical violence.

But despite the lower crime victimization rate, the survey showed that more Filipinos are fearful of neighborhood crimes.

Fifty-nine percent of the 1,800 respondents said they are fearful of burglary, up four points from 55 percent obtained in a similar survey in June.

The survey also found that 47 percent are fearful of walking the streets at night, up by a point from 46 percent in the previous survey.

Meanwhile, the number of respondents who said they notice many drug addicts in their neighborhood was unchanged at 38 percent.

Fear down in NCR

Based on the survey, neighborhood fear of crimes remains highest in Metro Manila, although it slightly dropped compared to previous surveys.

This was offset by the increase in the number of Filipinos

in other parts of the country who said that they are fearful neighborhood crimes.

Most of those who are fearful of burglaries are in Metro Manila at 65 percent (down from 69 percent in June), followed by the rest of Luzon at 63 percent (up from 55 percent), Mindanao at 54 percent (up from 47 percent) and Visayas at 52 percent (up from 51 percent).

Meanwhile, fear of unsafe streets was highest in Metro Manila at 49 percent (down from 52 percent in June), followed by Visayas at 48 percent (down from 49 percent), rest of Luzon at 47 percent (up from 45 percent) and Mindanao at 45 percent (up from 41 percent).

Visibility of drug addicts fell in Metro Manila (51 percent, from 52 percent) and Visayas (from 41 percent to 31 percent), but it increased in Mindanao (from 27 percent to 35 percent). It was steady in the rest of Luzon at 38 percent.

Crime victimization

According to SWS, victimization in all forms of common crimes all slightly decreased based on the recent survey.

A total of 3.4 percent of the respondents or an estimated 846,000 families have at least one member falling victim to street robbery in the past six months, down from 4.4 percent or an estimated 1.1 million in the June survey.

Cases of break-ins have also fallen, from 3.3 percent or 823,000 families in June to 2.6 percent or 640,000 families in the September survey.

Among families owning any type of motor vehicle, the survey found that 0.3 percent or an estimated 40,000 were robbed of it in the past six months, down 0.4 percent or an estimated 44,000 in June.

The survey also found 0.5 percent or an estimated 133,000 families have members who were hurt by physical violence within the past six months, down from 1.2 percent or an estimated 287,000 in the past survey.

The survey has 1,800 adult respondents and an error margin of +/- 2.3 percent for national percentages.