Hong Kong crime: deception cases increase as other major offences drop to lowest levels in 4 decades
- The rise in cases of deception pushes crimes recorded in the city in the first half of 2022 up 1.8 per cent from same period last year, says police
- The number of homicides increased to 16 cases in the first half of this year from 10 reports in the first 6 months of 2021, according to the force
Reports of deception in Hong Kong rose by nearly 42 per cent to 12,326 in the first six months of this year, while the half-year figures for other major crimes fell to their lowest level in more than four decades, the force revealed on Monday.
Announcing the city’s crime statistics in the first half of 2022, the force highlighted the arrest of 55 youths aged between 12 to 16, with 46 of them being students. They were “misled and influenced by bad peers to engage in illegal debt collection activities,” police said in a statement.
Between January and June this year, nine schoolboys, aged 13 or 14, were “exploited by drug syndicates” and arrested on suspicion of trafficking illegal substances, according to police.
Police added that 12 girls, aged from 12 to 15 were lured into engaging in prostitution to earn quick money over the same period. Eleven of the girls were students.
However, the number of young people aged 10 to 20 arrested for various crimes dropped by 18 per cent to 1,245 in the six months of this year.
Despite the decline in the number of arrests among young people, police said the situation of vulnerable youths being exploited by lawbreakers to commit offences “remained a concern”.
Police described youth crime as a complex social issue, which required different sectors of the community to strengthen collaboration in the use of publicity and education to help cultivate a law-abiding awareness among youngsters.