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July 6th, 2008
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Report on crime counters trends

Murder numbers fell in 2007 while the rate of rape increased

By Kimberly Ashton
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
February 6th, 2008 issue

After years of steady decline, the national crime rate rose slightly in 2007, marking a departure from a five-year trend.
According to a report released by the Police Presidium Jan. 29, about 21,000 more crimes were reported last year, for a total of 357,391, as compared with the previous year. While some crimes were down — there were 196 murders last year compared with 231 in 2006 — others increased. Reported rapes were up more than 100, for a total of 637. But the overall picture in the past several years has been relative consistency in most areas of crime.
The picture changes, however, when one steps back and looks at crime over the past decade. In 1998, 425,930 crimes were reported; this number has been falling ever since.
One significant change over that period is the dramatic drop in the number of offenses committed by children. In 1998, police received about 12,000 reports involving offenders younger than 15. Last year, people this age were involved in only 2,710 crimes, according to a recent police report. The reason for this trend, said police spokeswoman Pavla Kopecká, is that there are fewer people this age today as compared with 10 years ago, and schools and police have expanded preventive measures. Most crimes committed by children are property-related, Kopecká said.
Conversely, crimes against those over the age of 60 have increased rapidly, “in spite of all the police efforts” to protect this group, she said.
Another notable change over the past decade is that, while overall thefts and burglaries are down, pickpocketing has doubled.
The financial damages incurred by crime have also dropped drastically. Whereas in 2000, crime cost the country 63.4 million Kč, last year that number had fallen 24.7 million Kč. Likewise, property crime has dropped from 314,249 reports in 1998 to 228,266 last year.
— Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@praguepost.com


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