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Rather than drone on and on about how bad the driving is here, and how it is scary (but it really is) to have to drive here when you look at the statistics, I wanted to write about robberies in the Sultanate today.
There is a general belief that "there is no crime" in the Sultanate, but really, there is. I read with amusement (I'm nasty like that) that a man had his 1996 Honda Civic nicked in Mawaleh - he was a PRO for a company and had left his wallet, but more incredibly, a passport of someone in the company he works for, in the car over night. What a tool! Why on earth would you leave someone else's passport (or even your own) in a car overnight? The words "lazy" and "muppet" spring to mind.
The article in question which prompted this blog today though, is the statistics of burglaries in Oman in the first 3 months of this year. 1,342 thefts happened in the first 3 months this year, compared to 1,208 in the same period last year, an 11% increase. It's a general trend as it seems, the population is getting older, there are more people out of work and so I guess it is inevitable that crime will rise. We all know someone who's had their house broken into, car damaged or even simply just been ripped off by an unscrupulous retailer/mechanic.
It'd be interesting to get the data from, say, 10 years ago and compare it to todays data and see how crime rates have changed when compared to population change. And of criminals that have been caught, how many are local and how many are expatriates.
Perhaps the papers here are reporting on crimes more frequently now, or perhaps we really are in the grip of a crime wave here - what do you think? Do you think that there are particular crime hot-spots? Wadi Kabir? Azaiba? MQ in the summer? Mawaleh?
le fin.
There is a general belief that "there is no crime" in the Sultanate, but really, there is. I read with amusement (I'm nasty like that) that a man had his 1996 Honda Civic nicked in Mawaleh - he was a PRO for a company and had left his wallet, but more incredibly, a passport of someone in the company he works for, in the car over night. What a tool! Why on earth would you leave someone else's passport (or even your own) in a car overnight? The words "lazy" and "muppet" spring to mind.
The article in question which prompted this blog today though, is the statistics of burglaries in Oman in the first 3 months of this year. 1,342 thefts happened in the first 3 months this year, compared to 1,208 in the same period last year, an 11% increase. It's a general trend as it seems, the population is getting older, there are more people out of work and so I guess it is inevitable that crime will rise. We all know someone who's had their house broken into, car damaged or even simply just been ripped off by an unscrupulous retailer/mechanic.
It'd be interesting to get the data from, say, 10 years ago and compare it to todays data and see how crime rates have changed when compared to population change. And of criminals that have been caught, how many are local and how many are expatriates.
Perhaps the papers here are reporting on crimes more frequently now, or perhaps we really are in the grip of a crime wave here - what do you think? Do you think that there are particular crime hot-spots? Wadi Kabir? Azaiba? MQ in the summer? Mawaleh?
le fin.
Some more on ROP statistics
![Some more on ROP statistics]()
Reviewed by Sythe
on
Monday, July 18, 2011
Rating:
From what I've 'gathered' and know (which I grant you, isn't loads), most of the crimes are not to do with an aging population, but are the result of a greater number of (low-wage) expats and illegal immigrants (or people who don't repatriate and stay illegally after termination of employment).
ReplyDeleteI suspect it's also to do with increasing reporting.
It's pity really. I think the police should come down very heavy-handed on crime, since this part of the world has (relatively speaking) been quite free of it in the past (largely due to severe punishment as a deterrent).
Zero tolerance for such crimes, that's what I say.
Harsh, perhaps, but my opinion!
I think its just more cases being brought to light esp by mct daily if i am not mistaken. one thing is for sure, burglaries are easy to commit and no one really gets caught. we had our then-expensive CD player hacked out in the middle of the night from our car. nothin much was done though we had called the policia etc... nd to add to that, the luxury lovin generation,both locals and expats want easy money!
ReplyDeleteRe crime – having suffered 3 shop breaking and entry over 20 years ago (and one of the events was one of a pair during the same day by the same man - who was not a foreign worker) and heard of far more interesting robberies during the intervening years from all areas of Oman; I doubt if crimes have dramatically increased and suspect that it is rather more a case of more publicity.
ReplyDeleteRe Driving – the number of deaths are not greatly different from 20 years ago (despite vastly increased traffic) – which I remember from sitting at the airport traffic police and reading 694 deaths.
Crime is rife in Oman for long and is largely(~80%) committed by Omanis. If you do not believe then look at the link below;
ReplyDeletehttp://muscatconfidential.blogspot.com/2010/03/plug-suburbans-muscat-crime-survey.html
The problem is here media is not free and biased towards glorification of Omanis and belittling of Expats especially Indians. This bias I am told is carried forward by police and law agencies but still conviction rate is suggesting that crime is largely Omani affair. Other policy of not naming and shaming Omanis convicted also helps to keep media and general population bias towards glorification of Omanis and belittling of expats.Crime statistics for last 10 years should be published classified by Nationalities.
I would like to announce that my brand new 2011 Toyota was stolen in Al Khoud. Awesome right? Whoever the theif was, thank you so much for stealing a pregnnt ladie's ride, and way of getting to the hospital for check-ups ect... And yeah, didn't have insurance coverage for it yet. So there also goes my savings in order to replace it. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOPNO!!!
ReplyDeleteHow on earth did you buy it without insurance? I thought it was impossible to even get a green plate without insurance?
Fingers crossed it turns up :(
I'm really sorry to hear your news.
Recent reports of increasing burglery, begging and protests do point to economic frustration in masses and hence crimes do come as sequel.
ReplyDelete