The number of crimes in the city may be decreasing, but crimes triggered by economic motives throughout 2012 will likely continue to top Jakarta’s crime trend next year as people are still facing hardships in earning a decent living, a criminologist says.

“Citizens of Jakarta are still living in hardship,” Josias Simon from the University of Indonesia told The Jakarta Post recently. “The constant economic pressure could lead them to theft and burglary.”

The Jakarta Police released their annual end-of-year crime report on Thursday, announcing that the crime rate in Greater Jakarta had decreased by 4.56 percent this year.

City police chief Insp. Gen. Putut Eko Bayuseno said that the area saw 251 criminal cases to every 100,000 citizens this year, down from 263 cases to the same number of citizens in 2011.

He added that overall, reported crime decreased by 5.86 percent to 54,391 cases from 57,779 cases reported in 2011.

The police highlighted 11 types of crime in the report, including aggravated burglary (5,862 cases), drug dealing (4,836 cases) and motorcycle theft (4,407 cases) having the highest number of cases.

Of the 11 crime types, the police recorded increases in violent robbery, murder, arson, extortion, drug dealing and juvenile delinquency.

The highest increase occurred in juvenile delinquency, with 30 cases in 2011 and 41 in 2012, a jump of 36.66 percent, and in arson cases, with 21.89 percent increase from 580 cases last year to 707 cases this year.

The sharpest decrease was found in gambling, with 1,036 cases last year and 506 cases this year, down by 51.15 percent.

The police recorded various crimes with economic motives trending in 2012, which included minimarket robbery, police impersonation and extortion aboard taxis.

Josias said that the massive cultural mix of citizens in Jakarta would create a communal sentiment, which might lead to an increase of organized crime, including gangsters and hoodlums.

He said that police had to take extraordinary steps to counter this tendency, including approaching community leaders.

Josias said that especially for next year, Jakarta would face a potential increase in unemployment in light of the sharp increase of the provincial minimum wage.

The crime rate in Tangerang regency also decreased from 3,997 cases last year to 3,234 in 2012, chief Sr. Comr. Bambang Priyo Andogo said on Friday.

“The regency, which is home to more than 2,000 industrial firms, is a bit safer this year,” he said.

He said that a crime took place every 42 minutes, a slowdown by over two minutes compared to 2011.

The Tangerang Police’s clearance rate, the number of cases it closes each year, had also increased by 120 percent to 2,309 from 1,048 last year.

The figure included a total of 165 drug cases, in which the police confiscated 53.8 kilograms of marijuana, five grams heroin, 135 grams of crystal methamphetamine and 500 ecstasy pills.

The police also saw a 6.8 percent drop in drug cases from 177 cases last year.

Bambang claimed the numbers, however, did not represent the actual condition of the regency as a whole because Serpong and Pondok Aren districts in South Tangerang were still considered crime hot spots.

“Serpong and Pondok Aren are the most populated districts under the regency’s police jurisdiction and they are located on the border of Tangerang and Jakarta,” he said.

“We will intensify patrols in the two districts by cooperating with the military command and civil defense officers to anticipate possible crime during the holidays.” (fzm/nad)

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