Reported Crime Incidences

Crime Reports in Malta occur through different media and modes of communication. The most employed mode is through calls and visits to the Malta Police as well as through the recently introduced online service.

Click on the link below to report an offence on the Online Police Reporting System.

This Section Index:

The International Scenario

The Malta Scenario

The Dark Figure of Crime

The International Scenario

An international comparison shows that Malta is a relatively safe country having an average of 43 offences per 1000 persons as against 102 for Finland, and 98 for the UK. On the other hand Malta is still far above such countries as Greece which registered 10 offences per 1000 persons.

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The Malta Scenario

An analysis of the last decade shows that since 1998 offences have continued to escalate yearly except for the years 2001, 2006 and 2007, which years registered a decline.

Contact info@crimemalta.com for more information. Kindly reference the following reference when quoting or using material from this page.

Source: Formosa S., (2007), Spatial Analysis of Temporal Criminality Evolution: An Environmental Criminology Study of Crime in the Maltese Islands, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom

The table and figure below show the offence data increasing from 15,771 in 1998 to 18,579 in 2005 and a decrease to 15,150 in 2007. These figures take on special significance particularly when one reviews historic data, which shows that crime has literally mushroomed over the decades, currently totalling more in one year than the whole 1960s decade which has registered a mere 14,881 offences (9.7 offences per 1000 persons). This trend takes even more significance due to the fact that the first 6 years of the 2000s have already amassed more crimes than the 1990s in total, increasing from 95,180 (1990s) to 104,725 (2000-2005)

Table: Reported Offences 1998 - 2007

Source: Saviour Formosa (2007)

A 50-year perspective: 1960s - 2000s

Interestingly the rates of change of crimes reported over the decades has seen an exponential growth. The Table and Figure below show such an increase.

Finally, a 50-year offence reporting analysis (Table and Figure below) shows that there is an increasing trend that is consistently growing and may appear to be exponential, increasing from 14,881 offences in the 1960s to 95,180 in the 1990s and 104,752 in the first 5 years of the 2000s. Crimes increased by 144% from the 1960s to the 1970s, then again by 47% in the 1970s-1980s period and by a further 78% in the 1980s-1990s period. The first major jump in crime numbers was experienced in the 1960s that is also reflected in the number of cases introduced between the 1950s to 1960s where Courts caseload jumped from 12,140 in the 1950s to 163,111 in the 1960s: a 1243% increase as against 31% for the next decade, against a decline of 25% in the 1970s-1980s period (that also saw a turbulent period for Court administration) and an increase of 23% in the 1980s to 1990s. The massive increase during the first decade indicates some kind of trigger in crime reporting: this could be linked to economic improvement, more efficient policing systems; a situation that recommends further future research.

Source: Saviour Formosa (2007)

Source: Saviour Formosa (2007)

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The Dark Figure of Crime

The data mentioned above refers to those incidences that have been reported to the police: in effect throughout western societies more than 50% of offences (even those designated as serious offences), are never reported, a phenomenon designated as the Dark Figure of Crime.

Crimes go unreported mainly for 3 reasons (Mayhew et al, 1993: viii-ix):
i) they are seen as too trivial by the victim even if serious;
ii) questionable police response together with the intricacies of the victim-offender relationship, and;
iii) the feeling that the police could not or would not want to deal with the offences.

Such issues are being investigated by CrimeMalta for the islands of Malta, particularly an initital 300-sample run survey investigating the Dark Figure, which results serve as a solid base highlighting the fact that people tend to stop reporting after the initial 1 or 2 incidents, repeat victimisation is high, reasons for reporting vary as indicated by Mayhew, but also have a local tinge: the spatial aspect. Persons from different localities tend to report different crimes more than those in other parts of the islands, whilst some victims from particular towns tend to seek retribution rather than report to the police. The next months will see the launching of a larger full survey investigating the Dark Figure.

In addition, an online Dark Figure Survey is being run by CrimeMalta in order to assess ongoing reporting structures.

Kindly on the image to take our Dark Figure of Crime Survey

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