Police: A murder every 3 days, 5 seniors assaulted daily

There is a murder every 72 hours and around five physical attacks are committed against senior citizens every day, according to the 2012 annual crime report by the Israel Police.

From 2011 to 2012 there was a 20.2 percent increase in general crime and a 11% increase in reported crimes against minors, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday.

Last year saw 120 murders recorded, a decrease from the 150 reported in 2011. Most of those were related to some other criminal activity or committed by a family member of the victim.

One thousand, nine hundred and seventy-two physical assaults against senior citizens were reported in 2012, and 21,877 crimes against them were reported, a 3.3% increase from 2011.

About 60 crimes per day against minors were recorded for 2012,  10,045 in total, including 1,972 instances of physical assault. Thirty percent of crimes against minors were committed by family members.

In 2012, the police recorded 3,941 instances of sex crimes, some 11 instances every day —  a 6.5% increase from 2011.

Police noted 22,542 instances of drug use and drug-related crimes in 2012 and confiscated 1,594 kilograms of hashish, 785 kilograms of marijuana, 171 kilograms of cocaine, 130 kilograms of heroin, 6,919 ecstasy tablets and a whopping 66,560 doses of speed.

2012 also saw 169,314 property crimes reported, including 20,326 stolen vehicles. Every day, some 75 houses or apartments were burglarized.

The police made 55,881 arrests in total, 34% of those for disturbing the public order, 26% for property crime (theft), 16% for violent crime, 15% for fraud, 9% for security-related crime, 6% for vice, 2% for sex crimes, and 2% for murder or attempted murder.

The police opened 357,936 case files in 2012, and of those, 47,507 led to an arrest. That is, every 7.5 cases opened led to one arrest, a slightly better record that the one arrest for 8.6 cases recorded for 2011.