Cyprus serious crime falls in 2008

Serious crime fell in 2008 according to the latest figures from the annual report, “Criminal Statistics”, published by the Statistical Service.
The report includes data on crime based on information provided by the police, the courts and the prison service and has comparative data for the period 1976-2008,
The number of serious offences reported to the police (true cases) in 2008 fell by 2.8% to 7,341 compared with 7,556 in 2007.
Offences against property constituted the largest group of offences, accounting for 59.3% of serious offences, followed by offences relating to forgery, coining and criminal impersonation with 12.7%/
The number of cases concerning drug offences decreased by 11.0% to 780, compared with 876 in 2007.
The number of adult offenders convicted of serious offences fell to 1,607 from 1,903 the year before,
The median age for crime was 26.0 years for males and 30.0 for females, who represented only 8.5% of adult convicted offenders.
Convictions of foreigners constituted 39.3% of the total convictions for serious offences (38.1% of males and 52.2% of females).

Juvenile offences rise
The number of juvenile offenders who were involved in the commission of both serious and minor offences rose to 341 in 2008 (of which 17 were girls) from 257 in 2007.
According to the judicial dtatistics, 103,829 persons appeared before the courts in 2008, compared with 107,269 in 2007.
Of these, 63,775 were convicted, compared with 66,962 the year before.
There were 1,255 admissions of convicted persons to prison (1,164 males and 91 females) in 2008, compared with 1,281 in 2007.
In addition to the convicted prisoners, 1,117 accused persons were admitted into prison pending trial.