SECTION I: GENERAL FINDINGS OF THE CRIME SURVEY

The Mauritius crime survey of 2004 demonstrated that since 2000 there has been a considerable and steady increase in offences. However, since 2002 the increase has been occurring at a lower rate which might be indicative of the effectiveness in policing strategies for crime prevention put in place at that time.

Chart 1: Offences in Mauritius from 2000-2003
Crimes, misdemeanours & contraventions in Mauritius from 2000 to 2003

According to the Mauritius Criminal Code Act offences are classified as follows: Crimes are offences punishable by – (a) penal servitude; (b) a fine exceeding 5,000 rupees. Misdeamours are offences punishable by – (a) imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 days; (b) a fine exceeding 5,000 rupees. Contraventions are offences punishable by – (a) imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 days (b) a fine not exceeding 5,000 rupees. For a comprehensive list of the offences and their classification, please refer to Annex 1. The statistics indicate a slight increase in crime and misdemeanours and a very sharp increase in contraventions over the last three years. Overall, by 2003, the percentages of general offences (taking the sum of the three categories into account) indicate that 78.9% of all offences are contraventions; 17.2% are misdemeanours, and 3.9% are crime.

Chart 2: Offences in Mauritius from 2001-2003
Frequency of offences from 2001-2003 (n=191226)

For the crime category, which is expressed as 3.9% of all offences in 2003, there were 7 635 reported crimes which show an increase of 538 crimes since 2001. Of these crimes 0.3% refer to murder and 0.7% to rape. When compared on a ratio of 100 000 people, Mauritius shows a rate of 2 murders per 100 000 people whereas other comparable situations such as Seychelles show a rate of 7 per 100 000 and Jamaica a rate of 32 murders per 100 000 people. On rape, Mauritius shows a rate of 2 rapes per 100 000 people, Jamaica 48 and Seychelles 79 rapes per 100 000. It is important to note that it is widely recognized that murder reporting rates are accurate and rape rates are grossly under-reported.

In 2003 there were 32 785 misdemeanours reported which comprised 17,2% of all reported offences. This signifies an increase of 1 115 in the number of reported incidents from 2001 to 2003. However, there was a marked decrease of 1 030 in the number of misdemeanours from 2001 to 2002. However, a substantial increase of 2 145 occurred between 2002 and 2003.

Chart 3: Distribution of offences by category in 2003
Distribution of reported offences by type in 2003 (percent) (n=191226)

In 2003, 78.9% of all offences were contraventions. Of this amount, 92.3% were exclusively related to traffic contraventions. Contraventions increased by 55 308 incidents from 2002 to 2003. In 2001 there were 95 568 contraventions while in 2003 there were 134 220 contraventions.

Chart 4: Distribution of reported offences by type in 2003
Distribution of offenses 2003 (percentage) (n=191226)

The examination of all offences in Mauritius for 2003 clearly show that 72.8% were traffic-related offences, 7.5% were property-related offences, 6.8% were offences against persons, 1.8% licence-law related offences, 1.8% drug related offences, 0.8% fraud- and dishonesty-related offences, 0.2% morality-related offences, and 8.3% offences that do not fall in any of the above categories.