Street Crime in Bulgaria on Rise over Economic Crisis

Bulgarian Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov (front), on his way to the discussion "Dynamics of Conventional Crime in Bulgaria in the Last 10 Years." Photo by BGNES

Street crime in Bulgaria is surpassing currently organized crime with the number of murders going down in the last years while attacks and threats are increasing.

The data was revealed Tuesday during a discussion titled "Dynamics of Conventional Crime in Bulgaria in the Last 10 Years." Interior Minister, Tsvetan Tsvetanov, also took part in the debates.

The trend in the last two years, since Tsvetanov's Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, party took office, is for a decrease of serious organized crime activities and of grand theft auto, but over the economic crisis, theft from homes and theft of personal belongings, particularly in small towns and from villas, is on the raise. There is also an increase in the number of threats and attacks on people.

Research of the Center for the Study of Democracy, presented at the discussion, shows that nearly half of Bulgarians never report crimes. The crime rate is the lowest in northwestern Bulgaria, followed by the central parts of southern Bulgaria.

According to the Center's experts, the economic crisis will continue to affect the crime rate at least until the end of 2011.

Tsvetanov pointed as another staggering problem the theft of metals where even culture monuments have been dismantled and sold for scrap, adding this type of crime is up in areas with high unemployement rates and demographic collapse.

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