Location and Type of Crimes in The Philippines: Insights for Crime Prevention and Management

The purpose of this study was to determine the association of location and types of crimes in the Philippines and understand the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns by comparing the crime incidence and associations before and during the pandemic. A document review was used as the main method of data collection using the datasets from the Philippine Statistics Authority-Annual Statistical Yearbook (PSA-ASY). The dataset contained the volume of index crimes in the Philippines from 2016 to 2020. The index crimes were broken down into two major categories: crimes against persons and crimes against property. Incidence of crime-by-crime type was available for different administrative regions in the Philippines. Chi-square test and correlation plot of chi-square residual were used to determine the associations between the locations and types of index crimes. A correlation plot of the chi-square residual was used to investigate the patterns of associations. Results suggest that the continuing effort of the Philippine government to fight against criminality has resulted in a steady decline in the incidence of index crimes in the Philippines. The pandemic too contributed to the decline of crime incidence in the country. These results imply that police surveillance activities in highly populated areas and specific interventions to address sexual violence must be in place during community lockdowns. The Philippine National Police should heighten its campaign in violence against women and increase its workforce visibility especially in remote and densely populated areas. The results of this study can be used as input to local government units for developing programs and plans on crime prevention. For future researches, it is recommended to conduct a precinct level analysis for a closer look at crime surveillance.