More than 76 percent of respondents to a survey released yesterday said that social order has been poor over the past six months, while more than 27 percent said that it will get even worse over the next six months.
The survey, conducted by the National Policy Foundation, an opposition KMT think tank, polled 1,084 people from Dec. 16-20 with a margin of error of 3 percent.
Reporting on the poll results, Yao Kao-chiao (姚高橋), former head of National Policy Administration, also said that more than 55 percent of the respondents are not satisfied with the government's attempts to improve social order in the past six months, but some 46 percent nevertheless have great expectations in the government to improve social order.
The poll found that the top five things that the respondents believe will most seriously affect social order are robbery (17 percent), joyriding (12 percent), robbery committed by motorcyclists (11 percent), abduction for ransom (9 percent) and murder (6 percent).
Twenty-nine percent of the respondents also believe that the economic downturn has contributed to the worsening social order, while 20 percent blame political instability, 15 percent blame high unemployment, 11 percent blame education failure and 6 percent blame a lack of an entrenched law-abiding concept.
On how to improve social order, 27 percent of those polled suggested improving the economic situation, 24 percent suggested lowering unemployment, 22 percent suggested stabilizing the political situation and 20 percent suggested stiffer punishments.
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