Munich has been the safest big city in Germany for decades. But the nationwide increase in violent crime does not stop at the city and district of Munich. With an increase of 8.9 percent compared to the previous year, the increase is even slightly higher than the Germany-wide average (8.6 percent). The Bureau registered almost 5,000 cases in 2023 – a ten-year high. Compared to 2019, violent crime in Munich increased by 26.9 percent. “The violence is increasing,” said Munich police chief Thomas Hampel, commenting on the development at the end of March when the Munich figures were presented. This also applies to “violence in the mind”, which is mostly politically motivated hate crime.
What do the police understand by violent crime?
“Violent crime” is a precisely defined police term Crime statistics. These include: “Murder, manslaughter and killing on demand, rape and sexual assault as well as sexual coercion in particularly serious cases, robbery, predatory extortion and predatory attacks on drivers, bodily harm resulting in death, dangerous and serious bodily harm, extortionate kidnapping, taking hostages and attacks on air and sea transport”. The statistical concept of “crude crimes”, which includes robbery, bodily harm, coercion and threats, is not identical.
How many cases have been solved?
The Munich police were called to 32 cases of murder and manslaughter last year, including ten completed and 22 attempted crimes. According to the Munich police, all suspects in these capital crimes were identified. If you look at all 4,910 violent crimes from the city and district of Munich, the police clearance rate is still 77.7 percent. The good news: In parallel with the increase in violent crimes, the Munich police were also able to identify more suspected violent criminals. In 2023, officers identified 4,763 suspects, eight percent more than the year before.
What do we know about the suspects?
Four out of five violent crime suspects were men. Young violent criminals are also “significantly overrepresented” in Munich. According to police statistics, the increase in robbery crimes among those under 21 was 47.5 percent. In cases of dangerous and serious bodily harm, the number of young people suspected of perpetration is higher than ever in the past ten years.
“Contrary to the Bavaria-wide trend, crimes committed by immigrants do not play a major role,” says Police Chief Thomas Hampel.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
What role does migration play?
A lot can be read from the numbers – and sometimes the opposite at the same time. The fact is: In cases of robbery, serious bodily harm and rape, more than half of the suspects identified did not have a German passport. The number of non-German suspects rose by 9.7 percent. However, this is about the large group of all people who do not have German citizenship. These can be people who have lived in Munich for decades as well as professionalized, traveling criminals, EU citizens as well as refugees.
The latter are called “immigrants” in police statistics. Their involvement in violent crimes actually fell significantly in Munich in 2023 – by 7.2 percent to 591 suspects. When presenting the crime statistics, Thomas Hampel said: “Contrary to the Bavaria-wide trend, crimes committed by immigrants do not play a major role.” It is also important to know: In violent acts committed by refugees, the victims were predominantly people without a German passport, including 235 immigrants. Many of these violent crimes were committed in the shelters.
Who was the victim of violence?
Perpetrators do not always lie in wait for their victims on streets or in parks. One in eight acts of violence occur within the family or partnership. When women become victims of acts of violence, in more than one in four cases it happens in the “close social area”. Men, on the other hand, usually become victims of violent criminals with whom there was no prior relationship. In every second case of murder and manslaughter, there was a previous relationship between the victims and perpetrators; in 17.2 percent of these victims, the suspects were the former or current partner. The Munich police registered 273 cases of serious sexual violence, including rape, in 2023, which is 35 fewer than in the previous year.
What do we know about the reasons for the increase?
Part of the increase can also be explained by the increase in population in the greater Munich area – according to the police, by 130,000 people in the past ten years. And there is apparently an increased willingness to report. According to police experts, some crimes move “from the dark to the bright”. So it’s always been there, only now the police find out about it. But one thing is also certain: “Economic development, increased migration and greater mobility” after the years of corona-related restrictions are reasons for the increase in violent crime, said the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, last week when presenting the nationwide figures.
Police Chief Hampel also asked the question of whether violence in society was generally increasing during the presentation of the Munich statistics. “Rutification” is a frequently used keyword. Verbal violence on the internet obviously also gives rise to physical violence on the streets: the number of politically motivated violent crimes rose sharply from 56 to 93.