INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ADVANCED MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

IJAMS Volume 1, August Issue, eISSN: 2799-0664

An Analysis of Index Crime Reported in Butuan City

REY P. ARCITE, MSCJ, RCrim
Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC)
arciterey_gmail.com

Abstract — The increasing volume of crimes has brought a severe problem in the
Philippines and many countries worldwide. Crime prevention is essential to reduce crime as well
as for public safety and security. This research study used documentary analysis to analyze the
secondary data: the Philippine National Police – Police Station 3 of Butuan City reported index
crimes from January 2016 to December 2020. The basic statistical treatment was used to interpret
and analyze the data gathered. The study revealed that most of the index crimes are theft and
robbery. These usually occur in barangays Libertad, Bayanihan, and Ambago. Index crimes
occurred anytime, mostly every Thursday, Sunday, and Monday, in January, July, March, and
2016 and 2017. The index crimes reported in Police Station 3 of Butuan City have 374 for the year
2016 – 2020.

Keywords — Index Crime, Crime prevention, public, safety, and security

Introduction
Crime is a threat to social order and development and a problem of individual pathology
or risk. The level of investment by the state in "law and order" reflects the political salience of
public order and crime issues. UNDP (2008).
Moreover, crime is an act committed or omitted in the violation of a law forbidding or
commanding it and for which a punishment is imposed upon conviction. In the Philippines, the
Revised Penal Code (Republic Act. No. 3815) serves as the fundamental law that defines criminal
offenses and provides the penalties for the commission of such. Crime is divided into an index and
non-index crimes for statistical purposes and a standardized definition of crime classification.
Index crimes refer to crimes against a person and crimes against property such as murder,
homicide, physical injury and rape, carnapping/carjacking, and cattle rustling. On the other hand,
non-index crimes violate special laws such as illegal logging or local ordinances. Senate Economic
Planning Office (2013)
Based on the Philippine National Police (PNP) reports, crime rates in the Philippines have
a steady drop. Also, there was a significant decline in index crimes such as murder, homicide,
physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, and carnapping in all country regions. The reduction index
crime was recorded as a 20.56 percent reduction in 2017 compared to the same period in 2016
from January to October. Felipe (2017).

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According to Boba (2005), crime analysis is a process of statistically examining crime data
and information to identify crime trends, patterns, and possible suspect descriptions.
As reported by the PDEA Region 13, criminality is a primary concern for the people of
Caraga. It is characterized by illegal drug use, theft and robbery, human trafficking, and violence
against women and children, and corruption. Illegal drug use Drug affectation in the entire Caraga
is recorded at 40.06% or 526 barangays of the total 1,311 barangays of the 526 affected barangays,
49 are seriously affected, 238 are moderately affected, and 239 slightly affected. Among the
provinces Butuan City, the only highly urbanized city in the region, recorded 81.39% barangay
drug affectation.
Furthermore, in another report of the Provincial Regional Office 13, criminality in the
region is also highlighted with incidents of robberies in 2012 in one of the pawnshops in Butuan
City and robbery-homicide in a lodging house also in Butuan sometime in 2013. However, there
is a downtrend of theft and robbery cases in the Caraga Region. The number of theft cases was
recorded at 2,977 in 2014, down to 2,157 in 2015, while robbery cases went down from 1,159 in
2014 to 935 in 2015.
In another report of the Philippine Information Agency of 2019, PRO13 had the highest
index crimes solved at 63.33%, followed by the National Capital Region Police Office with
62.53% as second and PRO3 with 58.13% as of third. Moreover, based on the data gathered by
the Regional Investigative Detective Management Division (RIDMD13) office, 418 cases of
murder, homicide, physical injuries, rape, robbery, theft, motorcycle theft, and cattle rustling were
reported and recorded from July to September 2019. Of the 418 reported crimes region-wide, 260
cases have been solved, while 324 have been cleared.
Traditionally, countries have relied on police statistics of reported and recorded offenses
to assess changes in offending rates over time. Since many offenses are not reported to the police
thus, reliable baseline data and analysis on crime and incidence is vital in developing and adapting
relevant crime prevention programs and strategies.
Therefore, with the changing data presented over the years, the researcher comes up with
this study to analyze the index crime reporting of the police station in Butuan City.

Literature Review
Felipe 2017, Philippine National Police (PNP), crime rates in the Philippines has a steady
drop. The reduction index crime was recorded to be 20.56 percent reduction in 2017 compared to
the same period in 2016 from January to October. Also, there was a significant decline in index
crimes such as murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft, and carnapping in all
country regions.

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Campedelli et al. (2020) analyzed crime in Los Angeles in two time periods (the first
ending March 16 and the second ending March 28) using Bayesian structural time-series models
to estimate what crime would have been if the COVID-19 pandemic had not occurred. Comparing
the actual crime data against the estimated ‘san-pandemic’ data, the first model found an overall
crime reduction of 5.6% during the pandemic. Likewise, the second model (ending March 28)
showed a 15% reduction. Specifically, researchers found that the overall crime rates significantly
decreased, particularly when referencing robbery (-24%), shoplifting (-14%), theft (-21%), and
battery (-11%). However, burglary, domestic violence, stolen vehicles, and homicide remained
statically unchanged.
Gerell, Kardell, and Kindgren (2020) examine crime during the five weeks after
government restrictions on activities began, observing an 8.8% total drop in reported crime despite
the country's somewhat lax response (compared to other countries' policies on restricting the
public's movement). Specifically, the researchers found residential burglary fell by 23%,
commercial burglary declined by 12.7%, and a staggering 61% reduced instances of pick-
pocketing - however, there was little change in robberies or narcotics crime.
Payne and Morgan (2020) studied crime in March, finding assaults, sexual violations, and
domestic violence were not significantly different from what was predicted under normal
conditions at the lower end of the confidence interval. They cautioned against early conclusions
based on this data as the government orders came only a few weeks into the study.

Methodology
This study analyzed the index crimes reported at the Philippine National Police - Police
Station 3 of Butuan City for 2016 – 2020. The documentary analysis was used to determine the
reported index crimes: rape, homicide, physical injury, murder, carnapping, theft, robbery, and
cattle rustling. The year, month, day, and time, and the barangay did index crimes usually reported
at the PNP Police Station 3, Butuan City for the year 2016 – 2020, were also included in the study.
The secondary analysis was used on the gathered data about the circumstances of the reported rape
incidents, the profiles of the rape victims and offenders, and the victim–offender relationship to
determine the patterns of rape incidents. As used by Candaliza – Gutierrez (2013) in her research
study, secondary data sources are the data collected by others and not by the current researcher or
secondary analysis. It is applied for the data collected and processed by another researcher, which
were reanalyzed, often for different purposes, by another researcher. This study was conducted in
the ten (10) barangays covered by the Police Station 3 of Butuan City composed of barangays
Ambago, Bancasi, Bayanihan, Bonbon, Dumalagan, Kinamlutan, Libertad, Lumbucan, Masao,
and Pinamanculan. A letter of request was sent to the Deputy Chief of Police Station 3 of Butuan
City for the researcher to have access to examine and analyze the recorded index crimes for the
year 2016 – 2020 in the ten (10) barangays of Butuan City. After the approval of the request letter,

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the data were collected through the records of index crimes from 2016 – 2020. The basic statistical
treatment was used to analyze and interpret the data gathered.

Results and Discussion

Demographic Profile of the Respondents
Table 1 presents the demographic profile of the respondents.
The majority of the respondents, 88 or 44%, belonged to 21- 30 years old. The respondents
were dominated by males comprising 115 or 57.5% and 85 or 42.5% were females. The majority
of the respondents 112 or 56% were singles and 85 or 42.5% were married, while a very small 3
or 1.5% were widowed/widower.

Table I. Index Crimes Reported in Police Station 3 of Butuan City for the year 2016 – 2020
Index Crimes 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total
Rape 7 9 7 10 7 40
Homicide 5 7 3 2 3 20
Physical Injury 10 20 8 7 45
Murder 10 3 4 4 2 23
Carnapping 4 6 4 2 16
Theft 57 32 31 15 10 145
Robbery 31 11 28 9 6 85
Cattle Rusting 0 0 0 0 0 0

Table I shows the reported index crimes in Police Station 3, Butuan City, 2016 – 2020. It
revealed that the index crimes reported for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 have decreased with a
frequency of 124, 88, 85, 47, 30, respectively. It shows that theft is the most frequent index crime
reported in Police Station 3 Butuan City with a total frequency of 145 for five years of 2016 –
2020. Likewise, robbery is the second most reported index crime in Police Station 3, Butuan City
for 2016 – 2020, with a total frequency of 85. It can reveal that theft and robbery or crimes against
property are most of the reported index crimes in Police Station 3, Butuan City, for five years of
2016 to 2020. However, there is no reported cattle rustling for five years of 2016 -2020. Although,
there are reported murders and homicides with a frequency of 23 and 20 for the five years of 2016
– 2020. It indicates that crime against a person is one of the index crimes reported seldom for the
five years.
In general, the index crimes reported for the five years of 2016 – 2020 have a total
frequency of 374. The data shows that for the five years, the index crimes reported have decreased
continuously.

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Table II. Barangays where Index Crimes Reported in Police Station 3 of Butuan City for
the year 2016 – 2020 mostly occur

Barangays 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total

Ambago 23 8 11 2 4 48
Bancasi 4 3 6 4 1 18
Bayanihan 24 16 18 7 3 68
Bonbon 5 4 8 3 2 22
Dumalagan 5 4 3 1 1 14
Kinamlutan 4 1 1 6
Libertad 54 38 31 22 17 162
Lumbucan 3 5 3 1 1 13
Masao 1 4 3 3 11
Pinamanculan 5 2 1 3 1 12

Table II shows that among the ten (10) barangays covered by Police Station 3 of Butuan
City, barangay Libertad have the most reported index crimes in Police Station 3 with a total
frequency of 162 for five years of 2016 – 2020, followed by the barangay Bayanihan and Ambago
with a full frequency of 68 and 48, respectively, for five years of 2016-2020. Barangay Kinamlutan
is the least reported index crime in Police Station 3 with a total frequency of 6 for five years of
2016-2020.
In general, there are reported index crimes for the ten (10) barangays covered by Police
Station 3 of Butuan City, with a total frequency of 374 for the five years of 2016-2020. It indicates
that in barangays Libertad, Bayanihan, and Ambago, the crimes of theft and robbery mostly occur
for the five years of 2016-2020. The data also shows that barangay Kinamlutan is the most peaceful
barangays among the ten-barangay covered by the Police Station 3 of Butuan City for the five
years of 2016-2020.

Table III. As to the frequency of Occurrence per Time of Index Crimes Reported in Police
Station 3 of Butuan City for the year 2016 – 2020
Time 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total
12:00 – 2:59AM 7 8 5 3 4 27
3:00 – 5:59AM 20 8 12 5 3 48
6:00 – 8:59 AM 14 9 9 1 3 36
9:00 – 11:59AM 22 16 11 6 4 59
12:00 – 2:59 PM 23 7 11 3 3 47
3:00 – 5:59 PM 17 12 13 8 5 55
6:00 – 8:59 PM 13 14 16 8 6 57
9:00 – 11:59 PM 8 14 8 13 2 45

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Table III shows that index crimes reported in Police Station 3 of Butuan City for 2016 -
2020 usually occur between 9:00 AM to 11:59 AM during the five years with a frequency of 59.
It was seconded by 6:00 PM to 8:59 PM and 3:00 PM to 5:59 PM with a frequency of 57 and 55,
respectively. However, index crimes occurred least between 12:00 AM to 2:59 AM with a
frequency of 27. It shows that index crimes can happen anytime in Butuan City for the year 2016
– 2020.
In general, the data shows that index crimes occurred anytime. The index crimes reported
between 9:00 AM to 11:59 AM, 6:00 PM to 8:59 PM, and 3:00 PM to 5:59 PM are theft and
robbery, as these are the most reported index crimes reported for the five years. It indicates that
theft and robbery usually occurred during busy schedules. These are during working time and
school time. During these times, most houses are empty because parents are working and children
are attending their classes at school.

Table IV. As to the frequency of Occurrence per Day of Index Crimes Reported in Police
Station 3 of Butuan City for the year 2016 – 2020

Time 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total

Sunday 15 19 14 7 7 62
Monday 20 12 17 8 4 61
Tuesday 13 8 6 4 3 34
Wednesday 7 9 10 5 5 36
Thursday 25 17 13 9 4 68
Friday 22 10 11 10 4 57
Saturday 22 13 14 4 3 56

Table IV shows that the index crimes are reported mostly every Thursday, Sunday, and
Monday with a frequency of 68, 62, and 61, respectively. Tuesday and Wednesday are the least
reported index crimes with a frequency of 34 and 36, respectively. It indicates that perpetrators are
taking advantage of committing theft and robbery while the house owners are working and their
children attend schooling. Sunday is the usual day for the family to go out to their house to attend
the mass, usually every morning or afternoon, and after the mass, they are going straight to the
mall for shopping or taking their lunch or dinner.
In general, there are index crimes reported every day in the Police Station 3 of Butuan City.

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Table V. As to the frequency of Occurrence per Month of Index Crimes Reported in Police
Station 3 of Butuan City for the year 2016 – 2020
Month 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Total
January 25 8 4 5 4 46
February 10 3 8 7 3 31
March 17 8 7 2 1 35
April 5 7 9 4 3 28
May 10 13 5 3 31
June 9 13 9 5 3 39
July 12 11 16 5 44
August 13 5 18
September 6 4 1 2 9 22
October 8 8 16
November 6 3 3 2 8 22
December 3 7 4 3 17
Months not identified 1 2 1 4

Table V shows that the index crimes were reported mainly in the months of January, July,
and March with a frequency of 46, 44, and 35, respectively. However, December and September
are the least reported index crimes with a frequency of 17 and 19, respectively. However, based
on the record book of Police Station 3 of Butuan City, there are unrecorded index crimes in 2017,
2018, and 2020 with a frequency of 1, 2, and 1, respectively.
It indicates that every month there are reported index crimes in Police Station 3 of Butuan
City, except on December year 2019, on May year 2020, and on July year 2020. These months
have no recorded index crimes based on the Police Station 3 of Butuan City.

Table VI. As to the frequency of Occurrence per Year of Index Crimes Reported in Police
Station 3 of Butuan City for the year 2016 – 2020
Month Murder Homicide Physical Rape Robbery Theft Carnapping Cattle Total
Injury Rustling
2016 10 5 10 7 31 57 4 0 124
2017 3 7 20 9 11 32 6 0 88
2018 4 3 8 7 28 31 4 0 85
2019 4 2 7 10 9 15 0 0 47
2020 2 3 0 7 6 10 2 0 30

Table VI shows that 2016 and 2017 are the most reported index crimes with a frequency
of 124 and 88, respectively. The year 2020 is the least reported index crimes with a frequency of
30. It indicates that the index crimes reported in Police Station 3 of Butuan City for 2016 – 2020

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are decreasing. The data also show no recorded physical injury in the year 2020 and carnapping in
the year 2019. It also shows that there is no recorded cattle rustling for the year 2016 to 2020.

Conclusion
Based on the data gathered, the researcher concludes that there are 374 index crimes
reported in Police Station 3 of Butuan City for 2016 to 2020. The crimes of theft and robbery are
the most reported index crimes in Police Station 3 of Butuan City. However, no recorded cattle
was rustling in Police Station 3 of Butuan City for 2016 to 2020. The index crimes are mostly
committed in barangays Libertad, Bayanihan, and Ambago. These index crimes occurred anytime
from the year 2016 to 2020. Likewise, these index crimes occurred every day and every month,
except for December year 2019, May year 2020, and on July year 2020. Year by year, the index
crimes reported are decreasing from the year 2016 to 2020.

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