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 Aftercare 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. For example, the Road Traffic Act has been amended in August 2018.
Key points
3. Offences reported to the Police, excluding contraventions, decreased by 1.0% from 45,457 to 45,004, mainly due to a drop in assault (-6.3%), partly offset by an increase in theft (+4.1%).
4. Road traffic contraventions decreased by 27.4%, from 243,425 in 2018 to 176,692 in 2019. It is to be noted that "exceeding speed limit" decreased by 6.5% from 87,408 to 81,691.
5. Some 15,941 persons were suspected, arrested and/or cautioned in the course of criminal investigations in 2019, down by 16.8% from 19,156 in 2018. The number of persons prosecuted rose by 25.5% from 11,823 in 2018 to 14,841 in 2019.
6. From 2018 to 2019, the number of cases referred by Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to the Intermediate and Supreme Courts decreased by 20.5% from 1,305 in 2018 to 1,037 in 2019.
7. The number of criminal cases lodged in Court decreased by 20.0% from 101,208 to 80,993. During the same period, the number of criminal cases disposed of dropped by 15.1% from 99,334 to 84,363.
8. Out of the 3,898 adult convicts admitted in prison in 2019, some 69.2% were re-offenders who had been imprisoned in the past, regardless of any observation period.
9. An average amount of Rs 746 was spent daily to maintain a detainee in 2019 in the Island of Mauritius compared to Rs 800 in 2018.
10. The number of Probation Orders issued, decreased by 21.3% from 254 in 2018 to 200 in 2019.
11. The number of offenders, subjected to Community Service Orders, decreased by 13.5% from 606 in 2018 to 524 in 2019.
June 2020
