Housing estates ‘breeding ground for delinquency and violence’

Housing estates in Malta are "a breeding ground for delinquency and violence", according to criminologists Savior Formosa and Janice Formosa Pace, who conducted a study on government housing and crime in the surrounding areas.

According to the two researchers, while the crime rate in Malta was not perceived to be alarming, financial insecurity and helplessness was leading people toward substance abuse as a way of abandoning their worries.

And with marital separation and family breakup on the increase, the study claims that this was leading to increased violence, mental health problems and children "left roaming the streets" unsupervised.

"It seems that housing estates can be considered as potential crime hotspots since, in some cases, they seem to have become a breeding ground for delinquency and violence," the study claims.

It attributes delinquency to "deviant youths" in entertainment zones and bars where fights - even amongst neighbours - and "the use of foul language" were considered to be one of the biggest problems.

"A steady increase in teenage pregnancies, single parenting and marital separations are leading to a diminished quality of life and poor child-supervision."

But while this scenario is usually tied to high-poverty areas, an analysis between offences and unemployment found no relationship between such areas and offence locations.

A spatial analysis of poverty and the offences committed in an area, showed that "offence clusters" were radically different from "poverty clusters".

"A cross poverty-offence analysis shows that very few poverty hotspots intersect with offender hotspots," Formosa found, showing that crimes take place in areas that could be deemed to be more prosperous.

The same research delved into land use but could not establish any discernable relationship between poverty and dwelling type.

Poverty appeared to be located in areas close to village cores, but not essentially within these village centres. And a "new wave of poverty" appeared to have crept into the north of the island in low-rental property areas like Qawra, Bugibba and St Paul's Bay.

A recent study by Caritas found that tourist resort Qawra exhibited 16 times the national poverty standard.

Theft was predominantly the most reported crime at 55%, across the Maltese islands, while bodily harm and domestic violence amounted to 6.6% of reported crimes in 2012.

Malta retained a low rate of 39 offences per 1,000 people - far low than the EU average of 110 per 1,000. Gozo's stood at just 15, but Formosa's study argues that the double insularity experienced by Gozo might have actually led to lower reporting rate - an omertà that sees less crime being reported.

"Crime analysis requires studies at more detailed levels, since these levels indicate that parochialism or control by organised crime deters reporting to the authorities," Formosa says, adding that not reporting keeps the police away from particular areas.

In fact, the crime hotspots in Gozo were found to be Xlendi, Marsalforn, Mgarr and Rabat - all areas frequented by tourists - and in Xewkija where the Gozo University Campus is located.

"These areas are mainly frequented by Maltese and foreigners, who could imply that most reports made to the police are brought forward by non-Gozitans," the study pointed out.

"The findings elicit a possibility that the mitigation of crime is neither taken to the police nor reported. It may suggest that victims take up their own means to get justice."