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Leopold Chen

The number of young people arrested in Hong Kong in the first half of the year jumped by around 20 per cent, driven by cases of serious assault and criminal damage linked to debt collection activities.
Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming said on Wednesday that the force had arrested 1,580 young people aged between 10 and 20 from January to June, an increase of about 20 per cent year-on-year.
Among them, 283 were arrested on suspicion of serious assault, representing a 47 per cent year-on-year increase, while 140 were apprehended for criminal damage, marking a rise of more than 50 per cent.
In particular, 48 of them allegedly committed criminal damage as part of debt collection activities, compared with 18 in the same period last year.
“We are aware that the majority of them had acted on impulse, instead of [making] premeditated attacks,” Chow said, noting that around 70 per cent of those arrested for alleged serious assault had acted without much deliberation.
He added that many arrestees were “exploited” to commit criminal damage for quick money through debt collection, without realising the severe legal consequences.
During the same period, 199 youths were arrested for scams and money laundering, a level similar to that of last year.
Another 285 were arrested for drug-related offences, with 92 of them, or around 30 per cent, involving etomidate or “space oil”, a novel drug that was banned in Hong Kong last year.
The figures were released alongside the launch of the force’s latest edition of a guide to fighting youth crimes for teachers and parents, which has been updated annually since it was first published in 2022.

Chow said the booklet was renamed “Decoding Traps” to place more emphasis on preventive measures, encouraging teachers and parents to spot the signs of potential crimes by young people so they could intervene early.
“Rather than having young people realise what they have done is wrong after committing a crime and being arrested, we would like to highlight pre-emptive moves as the first line of defence,” Chow said.
The booklet features four topics: quick cash traps, online sexual grooming, teenage violence and novel drugs.
It offers tips to teachers and parents to identify suspicious signs related to these illicit activities and advice on appropriate intervention.
While it was important to prevent young people from committing crimes, Chow said it was also necessary to protect them from predators, as online sexual grooming had become a “global trend”.
In online grooming, predators approach victims online and seek to win their trust by showing care, before persuading victims to share intimate pictures. The perpetrators then use the pictures to blackmail the victims for money or sexual acts.
The government recently proposed legal changes that would criminalise the grooming of children and enable police officers to take early action before physical sexual offences are committed.
“Criminalising this kind of activity would be very effective in terms of law enforcement,” Chow said, highlighting the importance of raising awareness among young people.
He said police would adopt a “parallel” approach by investigating suspected grooming cases, while working with the social welfare and education sectors to step up publicity on protective measures.


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Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Hong Kong police chief says 1,580 young people aged 10 to 20 arrested between January and June, with many ‘exploited’ in debt collection crimes


Hong Kong police chief says 1,580 young people aged 10 to 20 arrested between January and June, with many ‘exploited’ in debt collection crimes.


Hong Kong youth

Joe Chow Yat-ming

Singapore Police Force

Youth arrests in Hong Kong rise 20%, driven by assault and criminal-damage cases

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong police chief says 1,580 young people aged 10 to 20 arrested between January and June, with many ‘exploited’ in debt collection crimes

Hong Kong police chief says 1,580 young people aged 10 to 20 arrested between January and June, with many ‘exploited’ in debt collection crimes