Crime

in PNG

Dear Sir I refer to the report by Sam Vulum in Pacific Islands Monthly (December, 1996) on crime in Papua New Guinea.

To be brief, I shall quote only two short passages from Vulum’s report: “Police recorded 875 serious offences throughout the country and only 398 arrests in October”; with 212 serious offences and 119 arrests”. Those and other numbers can be misleading and lead to possible wrong inferences.

The question arises: of the 398 people arrested and the 119 people arrested, how many were innocent of the crime(s) for which they were arrested? After all, just because someone was arrested for committing a given crime does not mean that person did, in fact, commit that crime (even if the police, in good faith, believed the crime was done by the per son arrested).

Robert Silberstorf

Antioquia Colombia • Editor’s note: In no way did the arti cle in question seek to imply that any of those arrested were guilty of the crimes they were arrested for.

Letters to the Editor should be addressed to: The Editor Pacififc Islands Monthly P O Box 1167 Suva

Fiji