Crime in Hong Kong is present in various forms. The most common crimes are thefts, assaults, vandalism, burglaries, drug offenses, sex trafficking, and triad-related crimes.
| Crime rate [1] | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homicide total | 35 | 17 | 27 | 62 | 27 | 22 | 28 | 24 | 48 | 24 | 22 | 23 | 30 | 28 |
| Homicide rate | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Violence total | 13546 | 13100 | 12821 | 12153 | 11073 | 10889 | 10103 | 9086 | 8884 | 9690 | 9391 | 9587 | 8830 | 10122 |
| Violence rate | 192 | 185 | 180 | 169 | 153 | 149 | 138 | 123 | 119 | 129 | 125 | 129 | 120 | 135 |
| All crime total | 75965 | 75936 | 75930 | 72911 | 67740 | 66439 | 60646 | 56017 | 54225 | 59225 | 63232 | 64428 | 70048 | 90276 |
| All crime rate | 1075 | 1074 | 1064 | 1014 | 936 | 909 | 825 | 758 | 728 | 789 | 842 | 869 | 961 | 1204 |
In the year 2018, crime dropped to a 39-year low for Hong Kong. [2] There were 8,884 reported incidents of violent crimes in Hong Kong at that time. In 2018, Hong Kong had 48 homicides, 4,593 incidents of wounding and serious assaults, 147 robberies, 1,575 burglaries, and 63 rapes. After 2018, crime rate are increasing every year (as of 2023). In the 2000s, the number and rate of murders were the highest in 2002. 2011 had the lowest rate and number of murders, at 17 (0.2 murders per 100,000 people). The homicide rate increased 129.6% in 2013 from 2012 though this was due to the inclusion of 39 deaths from the Lamma Island ferry collision. [1]
The most common forms of crime in Hong Kong are non-violent crimes. There were 27,512 reports of theft in Hong Kong in 2015. The most common forms of theft were miscellaneous thefts, shoplifting, pick-pocketing, and vehicle theft. [1] Criminal damage is also a common crime in Hong Kong, with 5,920 reports in 2015. [3]
Crimes committed by triads occur in Hong Kong. Common triad-related offenses include extortion, illegal gambling, drug trafficking, and racketeering. [4] One of the world's largest triads, Sun Yee On, was founded in Hong Kong in 1919 and is reported to have 55,000 members worldwide. [5] Sun Yee On's rival organisation, 14K Triad, was formed in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China in 1945, and relocated to Hong Kong in 1949. According to British criminal Colin Blaney in his autobiography Undesirables, British organised crime groups known as the Wide Awake Firm and the Inter City Jibbers that specialise in jewelry thefts and picking pockets have also been known to operate in Hong Kong. [6]
Hong Kong is a known transit city for human trafficking; victims are often coerced into forced labour or sexual exploitation. [7] [8]
Domestic and transnational criminal organizations carry out sex trafficking in Hong Kong. [7] [8] Victims of forced prostitution are often assaulted in brothels, homes, and businesses in the city. [9] [10] [11] [12] Many mainland Chinese prostitutes in Hong Kong are victims of sexual trafficking. [13] There is no comprehensive anti-human trafficking law in Hong Kong. [14] [15]
There have been reports of systematic racism in Hong Kong against non-Chinese or "dark-skinned" citizens. [16]
Knife crimes and attacks in Hong Kong is an issue. In 2022, local media such as Channel C coined the term "國際大刀會", which can be translated literally as "international knife metropolis", to describe a spike in knife attacks in the city. [17] [18] [19] [20]
In 2022, fraud cases rose 45 percent compared to the previous year. The first five months of 2023 saw an almost 60 percent increase in fraud cases. [21] [22] [23] There have been reports of human traffickers forcing Hongkongers to work in overseas fraud factories. [24] [25] Victims are often forced to commit cyber scams, and are at risk of violent retaliation from their traffickers if they fail to perform. [26]
Wo Shing Wo or WSW is the oldest of the Wo Group triad societies, and is the triad with the longest history in Hong Kong. According to the Hong Kong police, the triad is involved in extortion, drug trafficking, gambling and prostitution.
The Big Circle Gang is a Chinese triad which was established in Hong Kong in the 1970s. They were given the moniker "Big Circle Gang" and were formed by former members of the Red Guards, a paramilitary organization established by Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution. After Mao eventually ordered a crackdown on the Red Guards using the People's Liberation Army (PLA), many former members of the organization were imprisoned in China. However, some former Red Guards fled as refugees to Hong Kong, where they "turned their military prowess to crime", according to a Canadian court record, forming the triad known as the Big Circle Gang. The triad now thrives among the unregulated factories and underground banks of Guangdong, and especially in the city of Guangzhou; they were nicknamed the "Big Circle Gang" after a drawing on a map indicating in which part of China they operated.
Crime in Japan has been recorded since at least the 1800s, and has varied over time.
Shui Fong, also known as the Wo On Lok (WOL), is one of the main Triad groups in Southern China, operating especially in Hong Kong, Macau and Chinese communities abroad.
Crime has been recorded in the United States since its founding and has fluctuated significantly over time, with a sharp rise after 1900 and reaching a broad bulging peak between the 1970s and early 1990s. After 1992, crime rates have generally trended downwards each year, with the exceptions of a slight increase in property crimes in 2001 and increases in violent crimes in 2005-2006, 2014-2016 and 2020-2021. While official federal crime data beginning in 2021 has a wide margin of error due to the incomplete adoption of the National Incident-Based Reporting System by government agencies, federal data for 2020-2021 and limited data from select U.S. cities collected by the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice showed significantly elevated rates of homicide and motor vehicle theft in 2020-2022. Although overall crime rates have fallen far below the peak of crime seen in the United States during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the homicide rate in the U.S. has remained high, relative to other "high income"/developed nations, with eight major U.S. cities ranked among the 50 cities with the highest homicide rate in the world in 2022. The aggregate cost of crime in the United States is significant, with an estimated value of $4.9 trillion reported in 2021. Data from the first half of 2023, from government and private sector sources show that the murder rate has dropped, as much as 12% in as many as 90 cities across the United States. The drop in homicide rates is not uniform across the country however, with some cities such as Memphis, TN, showing an uptick in murder rates.
Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits, drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.
Crime in Toronto has been low in comparison to other major cities. In 2024, a ranking of 60 large cities by The Economist ranked Toronto as the 6th safest major city in the world, and the safest major city in North America. In the same year, CEOWORLD magazine, which includes some major medium-sized cities, ranked Toronto as the 160th safest city in the world, running behind several other major cities including Taipei, Munich, or Jerusalem, as well as, in Canada, Quebec City or Ottawa, but safer than most cities in the United States.
Crime in Russia refers to the multivalent issues of organized crime, extensive political and police corruption, and all aspects of criminality at play in Russia. Violent crime in Siberia is much more apparent than in Western Russia.
Despite a reportedly low crime rate in China, crime still occurs in various forms. The Chinese government does not release exact unified statistics on crime rates and the rate of criminal offending due to such information being considered politically sensitive. Scarce official statistics released are the subject of much academic debate due to allegations of statistical fabrication, under-reporting and corruption. The illegal drug trade in China is a significant driver of violent crime, including murder.
The 14K (十四K) is a triad group based in Hong Kong but active internationally. It is the second largest triad group in the world with around 20,000 members split into thirty subgroups. They are the main rival of the Sun Yee On, which is the largest triad.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China is a destination and transit territory for men and women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
South Korea has a relatively low crime rate compared to other industrialized countries.
A triad is a Chinese transnational organized crime syndicate based in Greater China with outposts in various countries having significant overseas Chinese populations.
Prostitution is legal in Macau unlike in mainland China, because the city is a special administrative region of the country. However, operating a brothel and procuring are both illegal in Macau, with the latter punishable by a maximum jail sentence of 8 years. Street prostitution is illegal but sex work in a massage parlor is considered to be de facto legal. The city has a large sex trade despite there being no official red-light district. In addition to street prostitution, prostitutes work in low-rent buildings, massage parlours and illegal brothels, and the casinos, nightclubs, saunas and some of the larger hotels. Most hotels, however, have suspected prostitutes removed from the premises. Many of the city's sidewalks and underpasses are littered with prostitutes' calling cards.
Crime in Macau ranges from triad attacks, gang violence, money laundering, human trafficking, pickpocketing, petty theft, murder, corruption, etc.
Launched in 2014, Justice Centre Hong Kong is an independent, non-profit organisation that focuses on the protection of refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has long been a hub of migration and refuge due to wars in the region and Hong Kong’s historical role as a trading and transit entrepôt. There were estimated to be 14,000 refugees in the territory in 2017, and these refugees are in need of extensive legal assistance as the 0.8 substantiation rate is extremely low compared to rates of 25-62% per cent in other developed jurisdictions. Before early 2014 the organisation was known as the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre (HKRAC), which in 2007 had grown out of the Refugee Advice Unit from another local organisation working with refugees, Christian Action. And spun off by human rights lawyers Jennifer Stone and Raquel Amador, who were the first Directors. In 2012 Aleta Miller became Executive Director, helping HKRAC win the Clifford Chance Foundation Access to Justice Award in 2012, and relaunching the organisation as Justice Centre Hong Kong in 2014. From 2015 the Executive Director was Piya Muqit, who was previously head of policy and advocacy at UNICEF UK. In November 2020 Melanie McLaren was appointed Executive Director.
Sex trafficking in Hong Kong is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and slavery that occurs in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a city of origin, destination, and transit for sexually trafficked persons.
A fraud factory or fraud park is a collection of large fraud organizations usually involved in human trafficking operations, commonly found in Southeast Asia and usually operated by a criminal gang. Fraud factory operators lure foreign nationals to scam hubs, where they are forced into modern slavery, to scam internet users around the world into fraudulently buying cryptocurrencies or withdrawing cash, via social media and online dating apps. Trafficking victims' passports are confiscated, and they are threatened with organ harvesting and forced prostitution if they do not scam sufficiently successfully.
Roderic Broadhurst is a criminal justice practitioner, academic, and author. He is an Emeritus Professor at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) and Fellow of the Research School of Asian and the Pacific at the Australian National University (ANU).
KK Park is a fraud factory located in Myawaddy, Myanmar. Located next to the Moei River on the Myanmar–Thailand border, the complex is a major hub of Internet fraud and human trafficking within the larger Golden Triangle region.
