The Department of Statistic Malaysia has released the Crime Statistic of Malaysia crime cases for year 2020. According to Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, the violent and property crime cases in Malaysia have decreased by 21.4% in 2020. 

In the previous year (2019), a total of 83,456 cases was recorded. That is a 17,833 decrease in cases as 65,623 cases were recorded in 2020. 

Violent & Property crimes in Malaysia: 2020

Mohd Uzir said that violent crime decreased by 19.5% to 13,279 cases in 2020 while property crime dropped by 21.8% to 52,344 cases during the same period.

Violent crime

Violent crimes comprise murder, rape, robbery and causing injury.

Based on the record of violent crime cases by the administrative district, Seremban, Negri Sembilan recorded the highest percentage of decrease in 2020. With a 40.6% decrease, the crimes cases decreased from 549 cases to 326 cases in 2019.

This is followed by Johor Bahru with a decent decrease of 36.7% and Melaka Tengah with a 26.3% decrease.

Property crime

Meanwhile, Seberang Perai Tengah, Penang recorded the highest decrease of 35.8% in property crime. It recorded 982 cases in 2020 while 1,529 cases were recorded in 2019.

Property crimes include house break-in & theft, vehicles theft, snatch theft and other thefts.

Reason for the drop in cases

According to Mohd Uzir, among the reasons for the decrease in criminal cases were due to restrictions on social activities and cross-district and state borders following the movement control order (MCO). 

He also attributes the reason to stricter enforcement activities by the authorities as well as public awareness in enhancing protection from the threat of crime. 

Increase of cybercrime in Malaysia

On the other hand, Mohd Uzir said the number of cybercrime complaints received by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission in 2020 increased by 99.5%. Initially, at 10,426 in 2019, they received a total of 20,805 complaints last year.

Obscene, false, offensive, indecent and menacing are among the elements of the complaints received last year.

Moreover, false element has the highest increase in complaints, with a rise of 117.6%. It recorded 6,637 complaints in 2020 while 3,050 were recorded in the previous year.

Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM)

DoSM published the Crime Statistics, Malaysia, 2021, on Thursday (25 Nov). The statistics comprise eight crime statistics, namely crime index, drugs, corruptions, environment, traffic offences, cybercrime, maritime crime and correctional facility.

You may read the full report here.