An increasing number of people are dissatisfied with the government’s maintainance of social order, a survey released on Saturday indicated.

The survey conducted by the Crime Research Center of National Chung Cheng University found that 76 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the government’s efforts to improve social order in the first half of the year. This was an increase of 5.3 percentage points compared with the results of a similar survey last year, center director Yang Shi-lung (楊士隆) said.

Satisfaction with the police’s ability to maintain social order also dropped to 39.5 percent from 47 percent last year, he said.

When asked about the death penalty, 42.2 percent of respondents were opposed to abolishing capital punishment, while 5.5 percent favored dropping it. However, 50 percent said they would support dropping the death penalty if substitute measures were introduced. These results were close to those in last year’s survey, Yang said.

The nationwide survey was conducted by telephone between July 1 and July 7 of people aged 20 or above. A total of 2,004 valid samples were collected, and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.19 percent.