Police, Justice Ministry rank high in civil servant crimes

Policemen and Justice Ministry officials were found to have comprised a large portion of the blacklist of civil servants who committed crimes last year, according to statistics released by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office Sunday.

Out of the total crimes by civil servants in 2013, the police agency topped the list with 1,202 police officers or other employees engaging in offenses, followed by the Ministry of Justice with 264 lawbreakers, including prosecutors or other staff.

The National Tax Service ranked third with 136 officials, followed by the Ministry of Education with 111 and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy with 102.

The data showed that 11,458 civil servants including government officials were booked last year.

By nationality, Chinese accounted for more than half of the foreigners engaged in crime in South Korea, 24,045 out of the total 43,923 individuals, followed by U.S. citizens with 3,089, Vietnamese with 2,933 and Mongolians with 2,356.

For frequency of crimes, Jeju City, Jeju Province, topped the list in terms of thefts with 982.5 cases per 100,000 residents in 2013, followed by Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, and Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, reported the highest frequency of robberies (7.9 cases) on the basis of the adjusted ratio per 100,000 people and Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, ranked No. 1 in murders or attempted murders.

Sexual offenses, including rape, were most frequently committed in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, with 76.8 cases.

The number of adultery cases came to 1,564, under which four-year-course college graduates comprised 22 percent of the total culprits.

By day of the week, Saturday ranked first with 15.8 percent of the total crimes, Friday with 15 percent and Wednesday with 14 percent.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)