ISKANDAR PUTERI - Criminal cases involving individuals age 40 and below in Johor recorded an increase of 2,402 cases from January to October this year, compared with 1,970 cases reported in the same period last year, the State Legislative Assembly sitting was told today.
State Youth, Sports, Entrepreneur Development, Cooperatives and Human Resources Committee chairman Mohd Hairi Mad Shah, said that, based on the statistics of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Johor contingent police headquarters (IPK), theft recorded the highest number of cases, at 1,083, followed by sexual crimes (818) and robberies (244).
"A total of 242 cases of vandalism were recorded, followed by gangsters or secret societies (10) and bullying (five),” he said in his reply to an oral question from Marina Ibrahim (PH-Skudai), at the state assembly sitting today.
Marina wanted to know the state government's efforts in addressing moral decline among those aged 40 and below.
Mohd Hairi (BN-Larkin) also said that the state’s Traffic Investigation and Enforcement Department recorded a total of 2,251 arrests of individuals, aged 40 and below, from January to October.
He said that, overall, there are 1.681 million individuals aged 15 to 40 in Johor, thus explaining the state government’s commitment to youth development efforts, and it is aware of the increasing trend of criminal cases involving that group.
Therefore, he said that the state Youth and Sports Department (JBS), under the Youth Development Division, has implemented 10 Social Intervention Programmes from Youth to Youth (Y2Y) this year, which focus on advocacy, campaigns, education and training, as an effort to reduce youth involvement in issues and social problems.
He added that the programmes, targeting youths in schools and institutions of higher learning, had been implemented in 10 districts, with 1,129 participants, in addition to the program under the Youth Development Division, involving the participation of 30,000 people.
Apart from that, another programme implemented by Johor JBS is the Belia Sejahtera camp, which is a social intervention initiative to give youths understanding and awareness about the dangers of social symptoms and unhealthy activities, with the involvement of 60 school students. - BERNAMA