Crime in Israel is dropping consistently, and police are solving more crimes, tracking figures from the Israel Police for 2018 obtained by Israel Hayom show.
Despite the overall drop in crime, violent crimes have become more frequent in the past two years, as well as cybercrimes, which can be attributed to the widespread use of social media.
"Violence has become a social plague, which society as a whole and the police in particular are confronting," a senior source in the Israel Police said Wednesday.
"There is growing violence in families, on the street, in social media discourse, on the roads, and among young people," the source said.
According to the police statistics, a total of 321,171 criminal cases were opened in Israel. Some were the result of complaints filed with the police, but approximately half came on the heels of police activity. This number marks of 2.5% decrease in the number of cases opened compared to 2017, which saw 329,382 new cases.
In 2018, the number of reported crimes per 1,000 people also declined, standing at 35.5 compared to 37.6 per 1,000 people in 2017.
The number of cases opened in 2018 for assault and assault resulting in bodily harm stood at 58,965, compared to 57,902 cases opened for the same charges in 2017.
Over 130,000 of all cases opened in 2018 involved property crimes, compared to 139,005 in 2017.
A total of 121,055 cases were opened involving public disturbances, including fights and threats.
Crimes of moral turpitude, including prostitution narcotics offenses, comprised 38,228 of the cases opened in 2018. Another 15,561 cases were opened on various fraud charges, including forgery, financial exploitation, and other financial crimes.
The overlap in Israel of policing with security and defense resulted in 12,758 new cases involving charges of incitement, illegal presence in Israel, and rock throwing.
Sexually based offenses, including rape, obscene acts, and sexual harassment, served as grounds for a total of 6,373 new cases in 2018.
Cybercrime was on the upswing, with 1,484 new cases opened for computer crimes compared to 1,259 in 2017. The most common cybercrime, which accounted for 47% of the cases in this sector, was hacking into computers.
2018 saw a drop in auto theft, with 11,539 cases reported, compared to the 13,257 auto thefts reported in 2017. There has been a huge decrease in auto theft in the past decade. In 2009, there were 8.8 thefts for every 1,000 vehicles on Israel's roads; in 2018, that number dropped to 3.05 per 1,000.
Murder was also down. In 2018, 103 people in Israel were murdered, compared to 135 in 2017. Among the Jewish population, 37 people were murdered, compared to 52 in 2017. Among Arabs, 72 people were murdered in 2018, compared to 75 in 2017.
The police figures also tracked the number of cases opened throughout the year. January 2018 was the busiest month, with 29,025 new cases opened. September 2018 marked the lowest number of new cases: 23,109. In 2018, Monday was the day of the week with the most reported crimes, with the fewest reported on Saturdays.
What happened after the cases were investigated? In 2018, 46,704 indictments were filed against Israeli citizens, compared to 45,644 in 2017. Israel Police prosecutors filed 37,233 of the indictments, and 9,394 were filed by the State Attorney's Office. The police reached over 6,100 deals in 2018 with suspects who express remorse, compensate their victims, or pay fines in exchange for the charges not going on their records.
The police attribute the overall decrease in crime to improved technological capabilities and a shift to breaking down and addressing crime by city, neighborhood, and even street.
A police source told Israel Hayom that "in recent years, police stations have focused police resources on taking care of all the issues that bother the citizens of Israel, and that is seen in the decline in crime."
