35% of Gyeonggi Province's Minor Crimes Involve 'Illegal Waste Disposal and Environmental Issues'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] The number one public livelihood crime in Gyeonggi Province was found to be in the environmental sector, including violations of the Waste Management Act. Public livelihood crimes refer to crimes closely related to the lives of residents in areas such as food, origin labeling, environment, real estate, and youth protection.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Public Livelihood disclosed statistics on a total of 1,547 public livelihood crimes that occurred in Gyeonggi Province last year, revealing that environmental crimes, including violations of the Waste Management Act, accounted for 35% of the total, making it the most frequent category.

The criteria for disclosing public livelihood crime statistics were cases detected from January 1 to December 31 of last year, with consideration given to the investigation period of 2 to 3 months; only cases that were sent to the prosecution by the end of April this year were included.

Looking at the public livelihood crimes in Gyeonggi Province last year by category, environmental crimes numbered 545 cases, accounting for 35% of the total, the highest among all categories. This was followed by food-related crimes with 256 cases (16%), origin labeling and related offenses with 177 cases (11%), fire safety with 83 cases (5%), and real estate with 80 cases (5%).

Among the 545 environmental crime cases, a total of 600 individuals were caught. These included 236 for violations of the Waste Management Act, 215 for violations of the Air Environment Conservation Act, 63 for violations of the Water Environment Conservation Act, and 57 for violations of the Chemical Substances Control Act.

By region, Pocheon City ranked first with 136 cases (8%). This was followed by Hwaseong City with 114 cases (7%), Yongin City with 93 cases (6%), and Suwon City with 76 cases (5%).

The month with the highest number of public livelihood crimes was April, with 212 cases (14%). The most common crime location was factories, accounting for 620 cases (30%).

Regarding the age groups of offenders, those in their 50s numbered 599, making up 35% of the total. The motive for the crimes was mostly negligence, accounting for 1,554 cases or 67%.

The province has published these public livelihood crime statistics on the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police website, as well as on the websites of 31 cities and counties and the Gyeonggi Nambu Police Agency.

Kim Min-kyung, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Public Livelihood, stated, "We expect that providing objective and factual information on public livelihood crimes will enhance residents’ trust, suppress criminal activities, and have a preventive effect. As the public livelihood crime statistics data accumulates, it will be increasingly useful for establishing major policies and conducting research."

Meanwhile, the province’s Special Judicial Police received approval from the Statistics Korea in December 2020 and publicly released public livelihood crime statistics nationwide for the first time in June last year.