RATE OF CRIME GOES UP BUT STATE OF NEIGHBORS COMFORTS US

Lragir, Armenia
Nov 3 2006

The state of crime has been under control over the past 9 months in
the Republic of Armenia, stated Ararat Mahtesyan, the deputy chief of
the Police November 3. Meanwhile, this year 7529 crimes were reported
against 6724 in the first three quarters of 2005. The rate of crime
grew by 2.5 percent. And the rate of revealed crime totaled 81.5
percent against 84.8 percent last year.

The deputy chief of the Police says the crime rate of 2005 is equal
to that of 1983, the crime rate of this year is closer to that of
2004. However, the Police does not worry, the situation in Armenia
is much better. For instance, by the rate of crime per 100 thousand
people we are 4.4 times better than Georgia, 6.5 times better than
Belarus, 9 times better than Russia and Latvia, 4.7 times better than
Romania and 55 times better than Finland. Or presently an annual 2500
robberies have reported in Armenia, whereas 13-15 years ago the rate
of robberies mounted to 6000. Meanwhile, the rate of robberies over
the past months grew from 1775 in the first three quarters of 2005
to 2310. The rate of robbery, fraud, assault and murder and attempts
grew (from 52 to 74). The rate of rape went down by 9, the rate of
assaults by 7, the cases of misappropriation or dissipation by 44.
702 cases of drug crimes were revealed compared with 461 in the first
nine months of the previous year.

"The number of female convicts went down by 0.5 percent, but the cases
involving female offenders grew by 7.5 percent," the Police reports.

Deputy Chief of the Police Ararat Mahtesyan said recently there
have been fewer publications on corruption in the Police. In this
respect, traffic wardens remain a painful issue for the Police. There
is another problem for the solution of which the Police asks for
everyone’s help. First, the citizens who witness offenses in broad
daylight refuse to give evidence, and deny that they have seen or
heard anything. "It is possible that the Police is also to blame,"
says Ararat Mahtesyan. Meanwhile, for the other vice, the shift of the
values of young people to the "criminal world, criminal approaches"
all of us, the whole society is to blame.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress