Crime, Justice and Security Statistics - Year 2016
Highlights
1. Crime, justice and security statistics comprises statistics compiled from the Mauritius Police Force, the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions, the Judiciary, the Mauritius Prison Service & the Probation and After-care Service.
2. Care should be taken in interpreting these figures. When comparing figures, it should be realised that police and judiciary figures are based on offences but prison and probation figures are based on offenders, and that many offenders are sentenced for more than one offence. Offences reported at the police can sometimes be reclassified as they proceed from police investigation through prosecution to final court sentence. Also trends in certain offences are subject to fluctuations as a result of sensitisation/awareness campaigns and intelligence-led operations.
Key points
3. Offences reported to the police, exclusive of contraventions, increased by 3% from 44,498 in 2015 to 45,801 in 2016, mainly due to a rise in theft (+8%).
4. Road traffic contraventions increased by 13% from 206,839 in 2015 to 232,862 in 2016 mainly due to ‘exceeding speed limit’ which increased from 58,473 to 86,951. It is to be noted that the figure for 2016 is not strictly comparable to that of 2015 mainly due to the fact that fixed speed cameras were inactive from 1 January 2015 to 5 September 2015.
5. Some 21,389 persons were suspected, arrested and/or cautioned in the course of criminal investigations in 2016, down by 1% from 21,648 in 2015. The number of persons prosecuted also decreased by 12% to 15,634 in 2016, from 17,667 in 2015.
6. From 2015 to 2016, the number of cases referred by the Office of Director of Public Prosecutions to the Intermediate and Supreme Courts dropped by 4% from 1,477 to 1,419.
7. The number of criminal cases lodged decreased by 6% from 122,860 in 2015 to 115,287 in 2016. During the same period, the number of criminal cases disposed of increased by 2% from 119,105 to 121,711.
8. Out of the 3,672 adult convicts admitted to prison in 2016, 67% were re-offenders who had been imprisoned in the past, regardless of any observation period.
9. An average amount of Rs 775 was spent daily to maintain a detainee in 2016 in the Island of Mauritius.
10. In 2016, 365 probation orders were issued, representing a rise of 6% compared to 345 in 2015.
11. The number of offenders subjected to community service orders increased by 15% from 487 in 2015 to 558 in 2016.
June 2017
