1.5M families fell victim to common crime in past 6 months — SWS

MANILA, Philippines — Around 1.5 million Filipinos reported being victimized by any common crime in the past six months, according to a survey by Social Weather Stations.

The survey also noted that the presence of individuals addicted to drugs had risen in Metro Manila and Mindanao, President Rodrido Duterte's bailiwick, and fallen in Balance Luzon and the Visayas, an area the chief executive regularly condemned as the hotbed of the narcotics problem in the country.

According to findings of the First Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey, 6.6 percent of families reported being victimized by common crimes such as pickpocketing or robbery, break-ins, carnapping and physical violence.

The 6.6 percent figure is lower than the 7.6 percent recorded in December 2017 but 0.5 percent highter than the annual average last year, according to SWS.

Drug addict presence went up to 33 percent in Mindanao from 30 percent in December while in Metro Manila it increased from 50 percent last quater to 51 percent in March 2018.

The same survey also found that around 1.4 million families or 6.1 percent of Filipino families lost propoerty to street robbery, burglary or carnapping in the past six months.

"This is 1.0 point below the 7.1% (estimated 1.6 million) in December 2017, but 0.5 point above the 2017 annual average victimization by property crimes of 5.6%," SWS said.

The same poll said that around 145,000 families reported that they had members who were hurt by physical violence in the past six months, lower by 0.2 percent compared to figures recorded in December 2017.

The polling firm noted that victimization by common crimes reported in SWS polls was higher than the number of crimes actually reported to police.

There was also a decrease in victimization of break-ins, from 790,000 families (3.4 percent) to 516,000 families (2.2 percent).

SWS also said that there was a decrease in cases of carnapping from 108,000 families (1.2 percent) in December to 51,000 (0.5 percent) in March 2018.

The SWS poll also recorded a decline in fear of burglary and unsafe streets in all geographical areas except Mindanao.

The survey results also revealed that more women (50 percent) than men (43 percent) had been victims of physical violence.

Physical violence among women rose from 11 percent in December 2017 to 50 percent in March while it fell among men from 61 percent last survey period to 43 percent in March, the poll said.

By geographical area, cases of physical violence had gone down in Mindanao and Metro Manila and remained steady elsewhere.

SWS conducted the survey from March 23-27, 2018 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide: 300 respondents each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

The survey had a sampling error margin of +/- 2.5 percent for national percentages and +/- 6 percent for area percentages.