Only 8% of arrested criminal offenders were eventually convicted??

I believe I am not alone when I say I worry about my safety as well as my family members and friends’ safety all the time. How can I not be? My friends, family members and I have been victims of robbery , snatch-theft, burglary, pick-pocketing etc. in the past.

Were our perpetrators ever caught? I don’t know …but I know that I have not heard of anyone (the victims) being asked to appear in police stations /courts to identify / to testify against the suspects before.

Yet, it still came as a shock to learn that only 8% of arrested criminal offenders were eventually convicted in court. If the risk of being caught and punished is so low, wouldn’t this only emboldened criminals and encourage more people to commit crime? Aren’t we then sending the wrong message to criminals and criminals-to-be that crime pays?

The focus have always been on our police force to maintain law and order ( and hence reduce crime rate) -- our police gets most of the blame for this current social issue but our prosecution office does not get as much heat (at least not from the media and, citizens). I think it’s time for us to pay more attention to our prosecution unit, which forms an equal importance in whole criminal justice system.

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According to our 2009 Attorney General Annual report, Malaysia has a total of 352 Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) stationed at Putrajaya and the states’ prosecution units. 272 DPPs are posted to the various states and districts throughout the country

These 272 state DPPs had to review 216,000 investigation papers or cases in 2009 (and decide whether to prosecute, dismiss or request further investigations). So, on average each state DPP had to look at 794 cases a year, in addition to attending to their other job duties like preparing for and conducting criminal prosecutions in courts, giving lectures/training etc. To me, as a lay-person, that sounds like a lot of work.

Compare our numbers with neighbor Singapore -- Singapore has a total of 108 DPPs who reviewed a total of only 41,000 investigation papers in 2009. This works out to be 308 cases per DPP, less than half the workload our of DPPs.

Well, one can argue that perhaps our DPPs are more efficient that their Singapore counterparts. But are they? Out of the 216,000 cases reviewed in 2009, only about 19,000 were brought to the courts. In other words, only about 9% of the arrested criminal offenders were eventually charged in court (stats not available for Singapore). And out of the 9% offenders that were charged in court, about 86% were actually convicted (conviction rate data from Attorney General Report 2009).

What do these stats tell us? Are our police are arresting the wrong people? Are our police arresting people without sufficient evidence? Are our DPPs dismissing far too cases (w/o charging)? Are our DPPs’ standards too high? Unfortunately, I don’t have enough information to provide the answers.

Yes, the government is adding more policemen and CCTVs (on the street) to combat crime. In doing this, we are attempting to deter crime by increasing the THREAT of BEING CAUGHT. However, this is not sufficient. The THREAT of BEING PUNISHED if caught should equally be emphasized on. A world with no or little threat of punishment would only emboldened criminals and encourage criminals-to-be.