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Anastasia Balezdrova

Greek media was full of crime news last month. A higher number of robberies and burglaries were registered every day, then followed the brutal beating and the rape of the 15-year old Myrto and the bank robbery, which ended with a murder in Paros.

GRReporter contacted the crime expert and member of the Democratic Left Yiannis Panousis, who commented on the surge in crime.

"Increased crime rate affects different categories of crimes. There is an increase in the number of thefts, burglaries in homes, bank robberies. A typical feature of burglaries in homes is that attackers break in when the owners are at home. Their aim is to keep them as hostages in order to be able to take as many things as possible and their cars too. This practice was not so common before. Another distinctive feature is the increase in the number of racist attacks. These are crimes of hatred to certain groups and motorcyclists in groups commit them in the streets, which makes it difficult to specify exactly who they are. There is also a new form of terrorism, which includes bank robberies and other crimes."

According to the lecturer in criminal law, it would be wrong to assume that the crisis is to blame for the increasing crime. "We could assume that the action of a man who steals food to eat might be due to the crisis. But the majority of offenses occurred before. The increase in crime is typical for periods of political and social instability."

Yiannis Panousis refutes the common public opinion that the high number of immigrants is largely to blame for the high crime rate. "The percentage of immigrants involved in the crimes is not so high. The ratio is higher when it comes to certain categories of offenses, such as theft. Another typical feature of these crimes is the unreasonable cruelty with which they are committed. I'm talking about cases of severely beaten victims of robberies - it's just unnecessary violence."

"The police have been always doing a good job when no one interferes with them and they have political and public support. We should not forget that the investigators were able to identify the perpetrators of crime in both cases particularly with signals and data from the citizens."

As for the case of the bloody bank robbery on the island of Paros, which the last free members of Conspiracy of Fire Nuclei had carried out according to the police, the criminal expert said, "The question is not how the society and we all perceive the activities of these groups and the criminal activities of their members. The question is how they define themselves. It does not matter that the society defines their actions as pseudo-political or terrorist offenses. What matters is how the perpetrators of these acts define themselves ideologically, how they overcome the moral barrier and what they think they will achieve in this way. Especially as history has shown us how such groups end and what the fate of their members is. Are they revolutionaries, avengers, people obsessed with ideas or ordinary criminals? They have to tell what exactly they are and to ground their words."

When asked about the position of the police in mass protest meetings and marches, which often turn into violent clashes between the police and some demonstrators, Yiannis Panousis said, "To me, social protests are a sign of a healthy society. Police do not and should not have anything to do with them if they are conducted in a peaceful manner. However, when it comes to outrage, protesting citizens should not watch passively. They should also react against all those who throw Molotov petrol bombs and break anything in their way."

According to him, the most serious and key problem for the high crime rate is the huge arsenal of weapons in Greece that were imported illegally and are in the hands of thousands of criminals.