The news that crime statistics for last year - 2006 - have in fact shown a substantial decrease from the figures of the previous year, which was an all-time high for crime in Malta has surprised many.
A report in The Times last Thursday quoted several respondents reacting to the newspaper's online poll on the issue, most of whom complained that they do not feel any safer, whatever the statistics said. Idle, unemployed and unemployable youths, drug addicts and immigrants seemed to be the kind of people mostly targeted by the public as potential criminals while alleged police complacency had more than its fair share of negative comments.
The popular perception that crime is on the increase - as indeed it was for the seven years between 1998 and 2005 - can hardly be reversed after a one-year blip. The Shadow Minister for the Interior, who usually responds in alarmist tones to news about increasing crime statistics, has refrained from commenting on these figures this time around.
Many have mistakenly attributed this fall in the level of crime to people's reluctance to report crimes as they feel there is a palpable complacency on the part of the police to pursue reports of minor thefts. According to the Police Commissioner, this perception does not correspond with the truth. To my mind, the percentage of minor crimes that remain unreported does not dramatically increase overnight and, in any case, there was nothing to justify such a sudden change in people's moods. Therefore, the reported decrease in crime must be very real.
Even if one ignores the 'good news' recently announced by the Police Commissioner, Malta is still considered to be a 'safe' country with a very low crime rate when compared with other EU countries and with other tourist destinations outside Europe. Unfortunately, we tend to disregard this blessing.
Countries in the Caribbean and certain cities in the US - such as Miami - that notionally compete with us to attract tourists from northern European countries, are notorious for their crime rate. Miami has a population that is very similar to that of Malta but is one of the cities with the highest crime rates in the US (see table). There were 28 thefts and burglaries every day for every 100,000 people in 2005 - four times the rate we have in Malta. In the case of murders and rape, the difference is even more astounding.
Spending a holiday in Jamaica, for example, actually means enjoying the sun and sandy beaches while being cooped up in a guarded tourist enclave. Walkabouts in downtown Kingston are verboten. A relative of mine who visited Jamaica and sought to visit the grave of his aunt - a Maltese nun who spent most of her life in a convent in Kingston, where she died - was shocked when he was told that to visit the cemetery, it was advisable for the "foreign party" to be accompanied by a police escort.
We in Malta hardly ever realise that elsewhere this sort of situation is so prevalent that it has been practically accepted as the 'normal' way of life.
In classic economic thought, a decrease in crime is an expected consequence of an increase in well-being and a drop in unemployment, although modern drug-related crime could be unaffected by such positive developments. Theoretically, at least, the present administration could attribute last year's decrease in crime to the recent positive turnaround of the Maltese economy. But one has to see whether this blip is the beginning of a new trend as one could easily be walking on the proverbial thin ice for more than one reason.
There is another statistic that the Police Commissioner seems to have inexplicably overlooked. This concerns the number of inmates at Corradino Correctional Facility that is currently some 480 - an all-time high. In other words, most of Malta's hardened criminals are at the moment behind bars. Prison works.
This statistic defies yet another popular perception: many people think that a lot of known culprits are still at large and that our courts are being too lenient with criminals. They come to this sort of conclusion on reading press reports of court sentences that give this impression, when in actual fact the courts probably would have good reasons to be lenient in particular instances.
It also flies in the face of certain do-gooders who think that prison sentences should not be routine for wrong-doers on the premise that prison does not reform criminals, but may even make them worse. That may well be, but spells in prison for criminals also mean more peace of mind and less problems for law-observing citizens.
The safety factor should be considered a plus for Malta. The fact that our crime rate is lower than in other countries should be an important aspect of 'Brand Malta' and should be publicised whenever the authorities try to attract tourists or lure investment to our shores.
Unfortunately, our own biased perception of the situation and our inferiority complex - still a national malaise - preclude us from even thinking about this possibility. It is only when we hear or read what foreigners find positive in Malta that we realise the truth. This is perhaps an advantage that a small community like ours has over the big burgeoning metropolitan areas of today where anonymity is the name of the game.
Our small size has given us both advantages and disadvantages. Making most of the advantages should never be shunned. But first we have to be convinced that things are not as bad as they seem and that popular negative perceptions can be wrong.
micfal@maltanet.net