The News Lens
Date: 2018/06/21
By: If Lin

Sensational stories of murder in Taiwan have sparked fears of crumbling social order, but police data tell a different story.

Reports of grizzly murders and social misconduct have proliferated recently, begging the question as to whether Taiwan’s social order is deteriorating.

This article uses official government crime data to show the changes in the number of criminal cases in Taiwan each year, over the past 25 years.

Since May 13, the news has featured several sensational stories, including a grandmother being killed by her grandchild, a dental surgeon being murdered, a person being dismembered after being killed by their lover, a TV broadcaster being stabbed to death, to name just a few high-profile homicide cases.

In addition, a Kuomintang think tank recently held a press conference to discuss Taiwan’s perceived economic downturn and the potential impact this has had on social order. A spokesman at the conference said that, according to official police statistics, the total number of “crimes” committed in 2013 was 255,000, a number which has since increased year on year to reach 287,000 in 2017. As such, the conference organizers suggested that social disorder in Taiwan is getting worse and harder to control, but is this really the case?    [FULL  STORY]