Police-1962-1963 — Page 31

ARINE DEPARTMENT LIBRARY

110. Traffic, immigration, gambling and hawking Offences grouped within the category of Miscellaneous Offences showed substantial in- creases compared with the previous year, and were mainly responsible for the overall increased number of reports made. There were 244,899 reports which did not, after investigation, prove to warrant further police action; of these, 1,632 were originally classified as Serious Crimes, and 243,267 as Miscellaneous Offences.

111. The tables at Appendices 13-25 of this report provide a detailed analysis of the volume and types of crime for the year. The comparative tables and charts show the trends in crime over the past three years. In addition a general analysis is given of serious crime by age groups.

SERIOUS CRIME

112. There were 14,346 cases of Serious Crime, a decrease of 122 compared with the preceding year. The offences in which these decreases mainly occurred were minor thefts such as larceny in dwelling and miscellaneous simple larcenies. Robberies, burglaries, breakings, demanding with menaces, snatching and larceny from vehicle cases showed an increase.

113. Of the 14,346 cases of Serious Crime investigated 9,993 were solved, giving an overall detection rate of 69.7% compared with 63.6% in the previous year.

JUVENILE CRIME

114. Juveniles (i.e. those under 16 years of age) arrested and prosecuted for Serious Crime numbered 1,219, representing 16.3% of the total number of persons prosecuted compared with 20% in the previous year. This decrease occurred predominantly among children younger than 14 years. A slight increase is recorded for crime com- mitted by juveniles aged between 14 and 16 years.

115. Young Persons (i.e. those aged between 16 and 20 years) prosecuted for serious crime numbered 1,054, representing 14.1% of all prosecutions, compared with 11% last year. Arrests among these youthful offenders showed substantial increases for robbery (+37 or 154%), larceny from vehicle (+25 or 125%), burglary and breakings (+17 or 71%) and serious assaults (+20 or 36%).

116. In January, 1963 a Juvenile Liaison Section was started in Kowloon. The work of this Section is to supervise and assist first offenders under 14 years of age, to collect useful information on all criminal offenders under 21 years arrested in Kowloon and to obtain in- formation on juvenile gangs and undertake prosecutions where necessary.

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