A REPORT by the Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD) on the crime trends in Bulgaria showed that in 2004 the crime rate has been halved compared to 2001.
According to the data, in 2003 alone, criminals stole from people's homes items worth between 30 million and 95 million leva, but the likelihood that one would become a victim of a burglary in Bulgaria is smaller than in Denmark or Australia, for instance.
The report was compiled from official police records for the period and two victimisation surveys.
The key findings and police data were compared to similar surveys and reports of 15 industrialised countries.
According to results of the victimisation surveys, during 2001 - 2004 the crime rate in Bulgaria decreased. This trend was in accordance with that of police-registered crime data.
The share of adults that became crime victims during that period fell from 17 per cent a year to 14 per cent a year.
The total number of crimes came down from close to 600 000 in 2001 to about 300 000 in 2004.
The level of crime in Bulgaria is comparable with crime levels in most EU countries and the United States.
For most categories of crimes, the risk that a person could become a crime victim is lower in Bulgaria than in other industrialised countries. Bulgaria ranks 14th among the 16 countries compared.
In 2001, for instance, 17 per cent of the population (over 15 years of age) were victims in one of 11 crime categories examined in the victimisation survey.
This is lower than most countries - US (21 per cent), Poland (23 per cent) and Australia (30 per cent).
Victims of crime in Bulgaria do not report about 53 per cent of the criminal incidents to the police.
The percentage varies in the various crime categories. While 81 per cent of stolen vehicles are reported, only 30 per cent of the robbery victims look for police assistance.
The police do not record a significant share of the crimes that citizens report. The internal police-performance evaluation methods create stimuli for hiding and manipulating crime reports.
Such actions lead to understatements of the real crime rate from the district to the national level. Such practices are observed mostly for non-violent crimes, such as thefts from vehicles, but also for robberies, about 75 per cent of which are registered as thefts or pick-pocketing incidents.
The most important factors for the decreasing crime rate are the fall in unemployment; the aging of the population and the reduction of the number of young males (15-25 year olds) due to low birth rate and emigration; the emigration of many criminals to the EU after the establishment of a visa-free regime with most European countries; and the anti-crime efforts of the police and the judiciary.