Crime in Romania

Romania differs from many countries in that violent crime is more likely to occur in rural areas than in cities, due to the socioeconomic problems of many parts of the countryside.

However, citizens and businesses still consider the government's reform weak and slow due to poor implementation of laws on transparency of information and decision-making process.

The EU Commission's latest Cooperation and Verification Mechanism report has however lauded the National Anticorruption Directorate and various other agencies in improving the fight against corruption, which has recently brought a number of high-profile convictions ranging from a former prime minister and parliamentarians to mayors and businessmen.

The report describes crimes such as individuals posing as plainclothes police officers, approaches of "quick friendship", pick-pocketing in crowded areas and public transportation, aggressive panhandlers, fraudulently charging exorbitant prices, and crimes against train passengers which cross rural areas.

In a 2013 Romanian survey, 30.9% of respondents agreed with the assertion that "women are sometimes beaten due to their own fault".

[12] Pick-pocketing and stealing bags often take place in crowded areas, near exchange shops and hotels, on public transportation, in railway stations and inside airport terminals; and such acts are a very serious problem in Romania.

Some thieves take advantage of the lack of attention of the victims and snatch bags and quickly run away.

[13][9] Crimes committed by children peaked in the 1990s when the social context of the time (closing of many Romanian orphanages and economic insecurity due to the collapse of the planned communist economy after the Romanian Revolution) resulted in large numbers of street children.

According to the US Romania 2017 Crime & Safety Report: "Panhandlers -- often groups of teenagers -- can be aggressive and have resorted to grabbing/tearing clothing to distract and steal from their target (...) Organized groups of thieves and pickpockets (including very young children and well-dressed young adults) operate in train stations and on public transportation.

Perhaps the most notorious criminal in Romania was Ion Rîmaru, a serial killer who in 1970-1971 murdered and attacked several women in Bucharest.

A taxi driver was forced, under torture inflicted on him by militsiya officers and prosecutors, to admit to a murder that he did not commit, after communist authorities ordered the case to be quickly solved.