Violent crimes fall, economic cases up

Violent crimes declined while economic crimes - especially cases involving fake products and smuggling - rose in the first half of the year, the Ministry of Public Security announced yesterday.

Crimes that "seriously erode the public's sense of security," such as murder, rape, arson and bomb attacks, were down 9.1 percent, 2.9 percent, 7.9 percent and 27 percent from the same period last year, ministry spokesman Wu Heping told a press conference.

He attributed the decline to better police work, but did not release the number of cases for each of the crimes.