Crime statistics: Number of crimes increased to almost six million

Last year the police registered significantly more crimes. Compared to the pre-Corona year 2019, their number rose by 9.3 percent. In particular, acts of violence and home break-ins increased.

The number of registered crimes in Germany rose to almost six million last year. This emerges from the police crime statistics ARD capital studio available in extracts.

Individual federal states had already published their crime statistics in the past few weeks, and there were already signs of a nationwide increase. Crime in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, grew by 3.4 percent in 2023.

The nationwide clearance rate has increased slightly: according to statistics, 58.4 percent of all recorded crimes were solved. Important to know: Police crime statistics only list suspects, not actually convicted perpetrators.

Strong increase in suspects minors

Compared to 2019, 43 percent more suspected children and young people were registered. Two reasons for this are being discussed, both of which have to do with Corona: On the one hand, children and young people tend to violate the norm, but this was not possible due to the pandemic restrictions. According to BKA statistics, there is a certain catch-up effect when teenagers typically go overboard: in 2023, what could not be discharged before was discharged in a concentrated amount.

The extreme psychological stress on younger people caused by the pandemic restrictions is also seen as a cause. Most of the crimes involve simple assault and theft. The crimes mainly take place among children and young people themselves.

Significantly more non-German suspects

There was also a sharp increase in non-German suspects at 17.8 percent – which is also due to the fact that more people came to Germany in 2023 than in many years.

Certain crimes, such as unauthorized entry or violations of the residence and asylum procedure laws, can only be committed by foreigners. If you take that out, the increase is still 13.5 percent. Overall, more than 41.3 percent of all suspects are foreigners.

However, there is a noticeable difference in the police crime statistics: the increasing number of non-Germans in the population as a whole is not taken into account. Immigration has been very high in the past two years. If you take this into account when interpreting the numbers and put the number of foreign suspects in relation to the foreign population, the increase in foreign suspects is even lower than in German suspects.

Acts of violence are increasing

There is a clear trend when it comes to crimes: violent crime has reached its highest level in 15 years with around 215,000 cases, according to the statistics. 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.

There were also more residential break-ins last year than the year before. 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.

2023 was the first year without corona-related restrictions since the outbreak of the pandemic. In previous years, when many people were at home and worked from home, for example, the number of home break-ins had fallen sharply.

Faeser calls for “zero tolerance”

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to officially present the police crime statistics together with BKA President Holger Münch next Tuesday.

From the perspective of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the development towards higher crime became apparent last year. In the fall, Faeser cited “social causes such as his own experiences of violence through terror and escape (in the case of non-German suspects, editor’s note), but also the risk of poverty” as reasons for this.

“At the same time, we are seeing an increase in youth crime,” says Faeser, “also due to the serious psychological consequences of the pandemic.” These are causes, but by no means justifications for violence, said the minister. The constitutional state’s answer must be “zero tolerance”: “Consistent action, noticeable criminal consequences, faster deportations of foreign criminals,” said Faeser.

Counteracting with better integration and Education policy

In addition, the poor state of the education system, which is reflected in the lack of school qualifications and the associated lack of prospects, must be countered with good social and educational policy, explained Faeser. Better integration work is also an important factor.

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 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.