Rape crimes by unemployed persons increase by 425% in Jordan

The number of known crimes committed by unemployed persons in Jordan has increased by 32 per cent, a new report by the Criminal Information Department has revealed. There were such 2,678 crimes in 2017 compared with 2,030 crimes in 2016.

According to the country’s Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI), sex crimes including rape committed by unemployed people have increased by 425 per cent, with 42 incidents last year compared with 8 in the previous year.

According to the statement, unemployed people committed 29 kidnappings in 2016 and 2017. So-called “honour crimes” by the unemployed fell to 190 in 2017, whereas the figure was 249 in 2016. Rape was committed by 29 unemployed people; there were 145 reported rapes in Jordan last year.

The Institute noted that the figures do not necessarily reflect the reality of the number of crimes since some of them are still under investigation.

According to the report, unemployment in Jordan has reached 18.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 0.2 percentage points over the first quarter of 2017.

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