Jakarta – The number of criminal cases in Indonesia in the 22nd week of this year, or the last week of May, soared by 16.6 percent compared to the previous week, according to the National Police.

They did not elaborate on the possible factors behind the increase.

Police's spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan said the number of criminal cases had reached 3,177 in the 22nd week of the year, up by 442 cases from the preceding week. Especially theft cases rose significantly, including vehicle theft and robbery.

"[The statistics] are dominated by conventional crimes like street crimes," Ahmad said during a teleconference as quoted by kompas.com.

The police vowed to improve security throughout the country to suppress crime.

The National Police's records showed a similar increase in crime nationwide at the beginning of April, when 3,827 criminal cases were recorded from April 6 to 12, marking an 11.8 percent increase from the preceding week.

University of Indonesia (UI) criminologist Iqrak Suhin suspected the surge in crime to happen because of financial stress due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Many people were unable to make ends meet as businesses encountered a major downturn during the large-scale social restrictions.

"Frustration caused by harsh economic conditions might be the main reason why such crimes occurred [recently]," Iqrak said previously. (vny)

Source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/06/04/crime-in-indonesia-surges-in-late-may-police.html