Back from the end of the last year the experts were warning that the global crisis would cause a high level of criminality. Despite this simple reality there is no need to be an expert. The global crisis and the unemployment, decrease of incomes caused by it will inevitably cause increase of crime and specifically crimes against property.
In the end of 2008 our government wasn’t taking the crisis too seriously and was therefore unserious about the consequences of the drastic increase of crimes. However, the statistics of these 7 months showed that the rates of the crime in the country increase more than the economic plummet rates. Thus, according to the data of the NSS in January-July of 2009 in general there were 8057 cases of crimes registered in the republic. Last year the number was 4914 for the same period. It means that we had a crime inflation of 64%. This is a disastrous index if we take into account the fact that in 2008 the crime level decreased by 1.5 compared to 2007. So we can officially say that the concerns came true and the crisis really influenced on the crime level. Crimes against property and of economic character increased. If in January-July 2008 there were only 2073 cases of crime against property then the cases have increased by 56.1% by reaching 3237. Moreover, the majority of these cases, 2900 cases are connected with the theft of personal property. During the first seven months of the current year there were 121 cases of burglary registered, which is 11% more compared to the last year. The picture is sadder in the area of theft – 2192 cases of theft during seven months (57% growth). The cases of breaking into apartments increased by 24%. As it was expected cases of swindling also increased. The cases of swindling increased 2.3 times and made 424 for the year. The cases of assimilation of state property increased 4 times. However, in the conditions of the global crisis the money-fakers got most encouraged. During the first seven months of the current year the cases of faking and holding bank notes increased 4.5 times. This can be stipulated both due to the crisis and the development of technologies, which create newer opportunities for falsifying money. Let us mention that besides the crimes against the property and swindling cases the cases of harming the human health and violation of public order also increased. For example, the cases of deliberate harm to the health increased 2.6 times (738 cases) and cases of hooliganism increased by 1.5% (212 cases). In general, the crimes against persons increased by 2.8 times and the cases of violation of the public order and deliberate harm to the human health increased by 61%. If the increase of economic crimes can be explained with the global crisis then in case of the other crimes the reason is the environment of impunity. It’s worth mentioning another notable fact from the statistics. There is decrease of the crime against a representative of government. According to the data released by the NSS the number of such cases in January-July of the current was decreased by 28.8%. According to the data of the previous year, compared to 2007 the cases of violence against statesmen increased 6.6 times. Of course, the reason is not that our citizens during the past 7 years were filled with bursting love towards the statesmen but the reason is the internal political developments of the last year. In other words, the 6.6 time growth was last year provided by the opposition representatives. We think it will be interesting to also have certain understanding of criminal motives in marzes. And so in all the marzes without exception the level of crime has grown. However, the level of crimes most prevails (by 91.6%) in Armavir marz. The second place is held by Tavoush marz – 86.5%, third – Vayots Dzor with 82.8%. The crime level has developed the least in Kotayk marz – 33.1%. As of Yerevan then the capital city gets over half of the crimes perpetrated in the country- 4108 cases of crime. Thus in Yerevan this year there had been 20 crimes made a day (according to official data). Compared to the same period of the last year the activism of the “bandit Yerevan” has grown by 66.1%.