BEIJING, August 9 -- Violent crime declined while economic crime rose in China in the first half of this year, the Ministry of Public Security announced yesterday.

Crimes that "seriously threaten the public's sense of security," such as murder, rape, arson and explosions caused by criminal negligence, respectively dropped by 14.9 per cent, 6.3 per cent, 17.5 per cent and 18.3 per cent over the same period of last year. However, the ministry did not release the total number of cases of each of these crimes.

Theft and robbery also decreased slightly. The number of theft cases decreased 1.5 per cent to 1.44 million and the number of robbery cases dropped 2.8 per cent to 153,000 over the same period last year.

Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said at a press conference yesterday in Beijing that the decline is generally attributed to a series of ongoing national crackdowns.

A crackdown on theft and robbery was launched last year, and in 2004, the ministry declared that "each murder case must be solved."

The number of cases that disrupt social order, such as organized prostitution, gambling, and drug smuggling and sale, also dropped by 7.8 per cent from January to June.

Gambling's 51.9 per cent drop was the greatest of such crimes.

Wu said the key reason for the drop in crimes that disrupt the social order is the implementation of the revised Law on Penalties of Public Security Administration in March.

"This law spells out very detailed penalties for violations, which effectively deter crimes," he said.

Meanwhile, juvenile delinquency decreased for the first time in recent years.

The number of arrestees who were under 25 declined by 6.5 per cent in the first six months over the same period of last year. The number of arrestees under 18 dropped by an even larger 11.4 per cent, according to the ministry.

Wu said juvenile crime is "a growing trend" in the country, but the decline shows that legal education and campus security campaigns are effective.

Despite these declines, the number of economic crimes increased 6.8 per cent to 33,000, the ministry announced. Illicit money involved totalled 58.14 billion yuan (US$7.27 billion), a sharp growth of 89.5 per cent over last year's corresponding period.

Wu said fraud is the most common economic crime, and the economically developed eastern coastal areas see the most cases.

"Criminological research shows that generally, economic crimes will increase when a country's GDP per capita is between US$1,000 and US$4,000," he said. "That's China right now."

He said the ministry attaches great importance to the steady growth of economic crimes and will spell out relevant countermeasures.

(Source: China Daily)