In the beginning of 2023, Kazakhstan was spotted in the Crime Top — 50.  142 countries took part in that somewhat peculiar competition, and Kazakhstan won the honorary 48^th place.  The top-list was compiled based on the crime index.

Meek and Mild …

Finprom analytics report that the Kazakhstan Crime Index is at 52.7. The higher is the score, the more criminal a country is.  The criminality level is identified on basis of special questions.

The authors of the Index explain that 20 scores point at low crime rate in a country, 20 to 40 stand for low criminality, as well, 40-60 mean moderate crime level, 60-80 warn that living in such country poses threat, while 80 scores scream that a country is super-criminal and life there is obviously dangerous.

Kazakhstan is not the most criminal of all CIS countries.  Less secure are Belarus and Kyrgyzstan.  But Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and Uzbekistan appear more calm.

Venezuela, Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan are countries where life is extremely dangerous, while Qatar is the most pacific country in the world. 

Criminal Almaty

As of the end of 2022, Kazakh law-enforcers reported 157.5 thousand criminal offenses, which figure is 0.3% lower year-on-year.

Almaty is the most criminal city of Kazakhstan, where 34.9 thousand offenses were registered by police.  In 2022, the Almaty crime rate increase by 25.9% year-on-year.  Our capital city is nonetheless dodgy – 17.1 thousand offenses.  In Almaty province, the crime rate was 12.6 thousand.

Less criminal are our new provinces – Alytau, Zhetysu and Abay.

If to discuss the number of crimes per 10,000 individuals, the ratio would be 79.9 in 2022 against 82.7 in 2021.  In Almaty, Astana and East Kazakhstan Province, that ratio totals 162.1, 127.4 and 106.3, respectively. 

Official sources also report that the lowest ratio is observed in Turkistan Province – 28.1.

Wussup, Dawgs?

What are the particular types of crime observed in Kazakhstan?  Ranking.kz reports that the majority of crimes are those against property – 31.2 thousand offenses.  Nonetheless popular are violent crimes – some 3 thousand a year, as well as violations of public security and order – 2.3 thousand a year.

If to discuss financial damage from those offenses, the total will be KZT 120.6 billion.  Out of said amount 66.9 billion stand for damage incurred by state, 28.2 billion – by legal entities and 25.5 billion – by individuals. 

Property crime damage totaled KZT 68.1 billion in 2022 or 1.9 times higher, compared to January – March 2021.

Other crimes are those against health and morality, as well as car theft.  The least quantity of crime was against peace and security of mankind. 

Sticky Fingers

As to specific types of crime, in 2022 the leading category was theft.  Law-enforcers report theft totals almost one half of all offenses in the country.  The majority of thefts are committed in private apartments and houses.

Experts explain that thefts are committed by the individuals, once and not even once caught hot-handed, but released after pre-trial mediation process.  Taking into account that “shallow-minded” habit of the victims to forgive criminals, in 2019, the Government amended our Criminal Code with a provision making theft, especially theft recidivism, a severe offense. From now on, thieves shall face 7 years of detention and property expropriation. 

The situation around this particular type of offense is improving – not only because the Criminal Code is more robust now, but also to the merit of technological progress – as of today there are more than 54 thousand surveillance cameras installed by state all over Kazakhstan.  Private individuals installed some 14 thousand cameras in their apartment buildings.  Compared to 2016, the number of thefts reduced by 67% (from 44 thousand to 14 thousand a year).

Police assures that their preventive measures also contribute into crime rate reduction.  We should not ignore that.  To certain extent, police are delivering.