PETALING JAYA: Malaysians should be wary of websites that use questionable methodology which paints the country as highly crime-prone.

Cybersecurity expert Assoc Prof Dr Selvakumar Manickam from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) said the crime rate in the country has always been low in general.

Malaysia was placed fourth as a country with the highest crime rate for the mid-year crime index of 42 Asian countries on a website.

The top three countries above Malaysia are Afghanistan, Syria and Bangladesh and below are Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Maldives.

Even Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand fared better than Malaysia, according to the list and were placed at 13, 18 and 21 respectively.

The last three countries on the list with the least crimes were the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan and Qatar.

“Websites that are not run or endorsed by the government may have content that is not validated, based on unsubstantiated views or publish misleading news that does not reflect the actual situation to lure readers and trick them to click on advertisements or worse, getting users infected with a virus. This is called click-bait,” he said.

“It is best to refer to government websites or mainstream media websites. We have our own Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM) that publishes verified statistics on topics such as population, economy, crime and many more. The website can be accessed at dosm.gov.my. Sites such as sebenarnya.my can also be used to facilitate fact-checking and news verification.”

Crime analyst Kamal Affandi Hashim said the crime index listing of the website was misleading.

“It was not based not the reality on the ground or the official crime rates,” he told theSun.

Criminologist Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar said it is crucial to look into the credibility of a website before accepting statistics it published.

“The reliability of the methodology adopted in producing such an index is paramount to its accuracy,” he added.

Criminologist Shankar Durairaja said official statistics released by the DoSM reported a decline in the crime index ratio for all states except Penang in 2019.

“Crime index ratio per 100,000 population for Malaysia in 2019 improved to 256.6 compared with 273.8 in 2018,” he said.

“The sources used to gather these statistics are questionable and some websites use victim surveys and self-report studies to provide the number and types of crimes being committed, which is questionable due to different or inappropriate research methodologies and data collection strategies.

“These websites are prone to exaggerating the numbers to win readers. Finally, there are various reporting procedures among different states and countries such that some can obtain a more wholesome report than others,” said the lecturer from the School of Investigation and Enforcement at Kolej UNIKOP.

Criminologist and psychologist Assoc Prof Dr Geshina Ayu Mat Saat said certain sites are attractive, easy to use and is easy to understand, but the information gathered is superficial.

“Many non-scientific sources or websites do not display or are not transparent about the reliability values and the processes involved in obtaining those values. These sources also do not seek or obtain ethical approval prior to carrying out the surveys,” she said.

She noted that it is unknown if the survey items have been vetted to be suitable for use in individual countries by local experts who would be in a better position to improve the survey items and this in itself reduces the generalisability of findings despite having a large number of respondents.

This article first appeared on TheSunDaily.