The fraught economic situation is a predominant factor contributing to the high rate of violence and crime in Jordan, said Professor of Sociology, Hussein Khozai, during an interview with Roya’s Donya Ya Donya program on Wednesday.

Rates of violence have increased steadily over the past five years, as can be seen through reports of attacks and through the crime reports issued by the Public Security Directorate, Khozai said.

Over the past three years, crime has increased from 22,000 incidents in 2017, to 24,000 in 2018, and 26,000 in 2019, he added.

Courts received a total of 253,000 cases in 2019, according to the Ministry of Justice, and the Family Protection Department received 10,000 domestic violence cases.

Two percent of pregnant women in Jordan are beaten but, more importantly, he said, 13 women have been killed since the beginning of this year, compared to 21 women last year, and 24 women in 2018.

Women being murdered has increased in recent years – now accounting for 20% of all murders in Jordan.

“Why this huge rise in murder cases, isn’t the Jordanian society kind and compassionate?” he said.

The most common crimes are finance-related, such as robbery, extortion, the non-payment of debts, signing cheques payments from empty accounts, as well as other crimes. The number of crimes related to money hit 18,000 last year, which is nearly 70% of the total number of crimes, Khozai added.

A Facebook poll launched by Roya asking members of the public whether they felt the current economic situation is a factor in the increase of violence and crime, found 86% agreed it did.