Fewer Filipino families have been victimized by crime in the past six months of the Duterte administration but fears of an unsafe neighborhood have increased, according to a latest survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The fourth quarter survey, conducted from Dec. 3 to 6 last year, saw 4.5 percent of 1,500 respondents or equivalent to 2.8 million families saying they have been victimized by robbery, burglary (break-ins) or car theft in the past six months.

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SWS said the latest figure was a new record-low, beating the previous record of 5.5-percent victimization by property crimes in March and June 2015, and 1.9 percentage points lower than the 6.4 percent recorded in September.

SWS added that the average annual reading for experience of property crime also hit a record-low of 5.5 percent last year from the previous record of 6.2 percent in 2015.

Respondents who said that their family members suffered from physical violence in the past six months steadied at 0.7% or 454,000 families, from an estimated 447,000 families in September. The annual average on physical violence victimization was flat to 0.8 percent last year from the record-low of 0.7 percent in 2015.

“All these readings led to a new quarterly record-low 4.9% (3.1 million families) who reported a brush with common crimes – ‘with an average of 12 crimes for every 10 victimized families’– 1.9 points below the previous record of 6.8% (4.2 million families) in September. Still, the 8.2% annual victimization by common crimes reading last year was 1.4 points more than 2015’s 6.8%,” SWS said.

“Victimization by common crimes reported in SWS surveys is much higher than the number of crimes actually reported to the police,” it added.

The same survey found 52 percent of respondents saying “there are already very many people addicted to banned drugs” in their neighborhood, four points lower than September’s 56 percent. But the annual reading was at a new record-high of 56.3 percent, eight points above than 2015’s 48.3 percent.

“Those who feared that robbers might break into their homes hardly moved to 63% from 62%, though the annual average rose six points to 60.3% last year from 54.3% in 2015. Similarly, those who felt that streets are not safe at night barely moved to 54% from 53%, though the annual average increased 6.2 points to 50.5% from 44.3%,” SWS added.

The survey, which was first published in BusinessWorld, had an error margin ±3% for national percentages. CDG

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