According to a media report, the police registered significantly more crimes last year. Compared to 2022, their number rose by 5.5 percent to almost six million. In particular, acts of violence and home break-ins increased.
According to a media report, the number of registered crimes in Germany rose by 5.5 percent to almost six million last year. According to the police, a total of 5.94 million crimes were reported, the “Welt am Sonntag” quoted from the police crime statistics, which Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to officially present next Tuesday.
According to the report, 58.4 percent of all recorded crimes were solved. Compared to 2019, there were around half a million or around nine percent more cases. Figures were already known from some federal states. Crime in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, grew by 3.4 percent in 2023.
According to the information, the number of suspects also increased by around seven percent to 2.25 million. Around 925,000 (plus 18 percent) of them do not have a German passport, over 400,000 (plus 30 percent) of them are immigrants.
Sharp increase in acts of violence
Violent crime has reached its highest level in 15 years with around 215,000 cases. This includes dangerous and serious bodily harm, with a new high of around 155,000 cases. The number of robbery crimes (plus 17 percent) rose significantly to around 45,000 and the number of knife attacks (plus ten percent) to around 9,000.
At the same time, according to “Welt am Sonntag”, there were more residential break-ins last year than in the previous year. The number rose by 18.1 percent to 77,819 cases within a year. Berlin is the leader with 8,323 cases, an increase of 35.2 percent.
Changing mood in society
In an interview with “WamS”, Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens sees inflation, higher mobility after the corona pandemic and the migration movement as possible explanations for the increase. North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul told the paper that the mood in society had changed: “Conflicts are solved more quickly with fists instead of words. The fuse has become shorter.”
Crime increased again nationwide in 2022 after years of decline – by 11.5 percent to around 5.63 million crimes. At that time, however, part of the increase was due to the abolition of the Corona measures. Due to the government restrictions, there were fewer opportunities for crime in 2020 and 2021 – for example because shops were closed and fewer people met.