China Ranks 3rd in Global Law and Order Report, Survey Says

China ranked third in a global survey on people’s perceptions of their personal security, indicating its residents have a high sense of security.

The 2020 Global Law and Order report, released by American analytics and advisory company Gallup, Inc. uses four questions to gauge people’s sense of personal security and their personal experiences with crime and law enforcement.

They are as follows: if the residents have confidence in the local police force, if they feel safe walking alone at night, if they have had money or property stolen within the last 12 months, and if they have been assaulted or mugged within the past 12 months.

The poll involved nearly 175,000 adults in 144 countries and areas in 2019. The higher the score, the higher the proportion of the population that reports feeling safe. China’s overall index score is 94. Singapore and Turkmenistan topped the poll with scores of 97.

Iceland, Kuwait, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates all scored above 90 and are among the top 10 countries in the list.

While countries with the lowest law and order index scores are Afghanistan, Gabon and Venezuela, all below 60.

Countries scoring highest and lowest on the index were also largely the same as in recent years, according to the report.

The law and order index of the United States is 85, which is the same as Japan, France and Sweden, and still higher than the global average. However, in the section of whether people feel safe walking alone at night, the United States is only slightly above the global average at 75%, which was statistically unchanged from 72% in 2017 and 2018.

The report showed that nearly 70% people worldwide said in 2019 that they feel safe walking alone at night and have confidence in their local police. About 12% of people said they had property stolen from them or another household member in the past year, and 6% said they were assaulted or mugged. These numbers remained largely unchanged from 2018.

The report showed that 90% of the respondents from China said they feel secure when walking alone at night. China is also ranked fifth in this index, after Singapore, Turkmenistan, Norway and the United Arab Emirates.

SEE ALSO: Economists Propose Three-Child Policy in China to Combat Reduced Population Growth

In 2018, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council launched a three-year campaign against organized crime. By the end of August this year, 3,347 mafia-style organizations and 10,564 other criminal gangs had been busted nationwide, according to the national office against organized crimes.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, the number of crimes involving guns and explosions in China decreased by 50% in 2019 compared with that in 2018.