The number of registered crimes has increased significantly in the past year. This emerges from the police crime statistics (PKS), which Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wants to present on Thursday, and which the Süddeutsche Zeitung already exists. Accordingly, the number of criminal offenses increased by 11.5 percent to 5,628,584. According to the PKS, one of the reasons for the significant increase was the end of the corona-related restrictions. However, the number of offenses has also increased compared to last year without pandemic restrictions: in 2019 only 5,436,401 offenses were registered.
There was a particularly large increase last year in violations of the law on foreigners (up 53.8 percent), white-collar crime (up 42.6 percent) and robbery (up 26.8 percent). The greatest decline (minus 19.8 percent) was in obtaining services by fraud. The clearance rate fell slightly in 2022 and is now 57.3 percent.
Percentage of non-German suspects increased
Violent crime increased by 19.8 percent. This also includes the crimes of murder, manslaughter and killing on demand – the number of which grew by 5.9 percent to 2236 cases. The crimes of rape, sexual coercion and “sexual assault in particularly serious cases, including those resulting in death” are recorded together in the PKS. Their number even increased by 20.1 percent. This could also be an “indication of an increased willingness to report, among other things due to the #metoo debate and the processing of abuse scandals,” says the PKS. Another reason could also be “the elimination of the corona restrictions and the associated return to public life, which creates more opportunities for crime”.
The proportion of non-German suspects was 37.4 percent last year. If you do not take violations of the law on foreign nationals into account, the proportion was 31.9 percent. Both shares have increased compared to the previous year.
Increased number of knife attacks
The number of acts of dangerous and serious bodily harm recorded as knife attacks rose to 8160, in the previous year it was 7071. The number of knife attacks in robbery offenses rose from 3060 to 4195. All acts are recorded as knife attacks in the police crime statistics, “in which the attack with a knife is threatened or carried out directly against a person – the mere carrying of a knife, on the other hand, is not sufficient to be recorded as a knife attack”.
There was a surprisingly high increase in the number of suspected children, by 35.5 percent. It is also well above the pre-pandemic level. The most common offenses among children were theft (40 percent), assault (23 percent) and property damage (14 percent).
The number of young people (14 to under 18 years old) registered as suspects has also increased – by 22.1 percent. Theft and assault were also the most common in this age group. Drug-related crime ranks third.
However, for all the figures now presented, it is true that they “are not an exact reflection of the reality of crime, but a more or less accurate approximation of reality, depending on the type of crime,” says the PKS. Because the development of the numbers can also be influenced by reporting behavior, the intensity of police checks, changes in statistical recording or changes in criminal law.