How Hong Kong crime has changed over time, and what that says about the city

Hong Kong isn’t the city it was 30 years ago. It doesn’t just look different; the economy, infrastructure and people have all changed – and with it so has crime. This gradual evolution of crime in Hong Kong has been captured and catalogued by the 700 graduates of the city’s first – and only – postgraduate programme in criminology.

When it was launched in 1986 by the University of Hong Kong’s department of sociology, the Master of Social Sciences in Criminology was well ahead of its time. Criminology was a new postgraduate discipline in those days and, 30 years on, it remains Hong Kong’s only taught postgraduate programme on the subject.

An exhibition by graduates of the programme to celebrate its 30th anniversary runs until the end of April. Juvenile delinquency, the correctional services, and policing are all covered. The works illustrate how social and economic changes have shaped crime and law enforcement in Hong Kong over the last three decades.

We see little violent crime in Hong Kong. There are between 17 and 20 murders a year and most of those are committed by someone known to the victim – it is rare that a stranger kills someone in this city. (It was a different story in the 1890s, when historical records show there were about 100 murders a year.)

What we experience is largely economic crime and that has changed over the years. In the 1980s there was a sharp increase in arrests for shoplifting and in some years prosecutions rose 40 per cent. This made it a popular dissertation topic in the early years of the programme. Why was shoplifting such a big deal in the 1980s?

Professor Karen Joe-Laidler, the programme’s director, says it was because of the introduction of convenience stores and department stores.