At least one police officer per week suffers some kind of violence in St Julian’s, recent crime figures show. Violence against officers has more than doubled since 2009, from 20 to 49 incidents last year, according to criminologist Saviour Formosa.

Paceville was the focus of attention in the past week after an 18-year-old man was grievously injured following an attack in Paceville which left him with his throat slashed.

His father called for stricter police enforcement and claimed foreigners were walking around armed with pocket knives and itching for a fight.

But while violence against police officers has been steadily growing in the past five years, crimes involving bodily harm have gone down from a peak of 266 in 2011 to 184 in 2013.

“Like homicide, violence does not happen every day. If it did, Paceville would have to shut down. The horror of violent stories is a result of the shock of the individual crime as it happens, otherwise it would be treated as a normal occurrence. With violence, there is no pattern except for the location,” Dr Formosa told The Sunday Times of Malta.

He explained the increase in violence against police officers could be the result of more police on the ground, which leads to more direct conflict as offenders do not accept supervision.

More in the e-paper on timesofmalta.com Premium. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140518/local/One-officer-per-week-faces-violence-in-St-Julian-s-area.519401

Tuesday’s edition of Times Talk will discuss the situation in Paceville.