In Germany, fewer offenses were reported in 2018 than in previous years. This emerges from a report of the "world" on police crime statistics, which will present Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) in the morning in Berlin. The tendency had already announced the politician in March.
According to the newspaper, police recorded 5.55 million offenses, down 3.6 percent from 2017. The number of suspects fell according to newspaper by 2.9 percent to 2.05 million.
Already the statistics 2017 (5.76 million offenses, minus 9.6 percent) had recorded a low. The Ministry of Interior had reported the lowest level since 1992.
Darkfield of unseen crimes
However, these figures do not allow any clear conclusions about the actual crime rate because it is unclear how many offenses are not even reported. Seehofer also wants to present this year's results of an investigation into how often citizens become victims of crime, how confident they feel and how they evaluate the work of the police and the judiciary.
More than half (57.7%) of the crimes have been reported. However, this information rate is not very meaningful because, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office, the offenses reported in 2018 are related to the cases clarified in the same year. However, these two groups are not identical. If more crimes are reported in one year than reported, it would theoretically even be possible to enlightenment rates of more than 100 percent.
About a third of the reported crimes, according to "Welt", related to theft offenses. Thus, fewer thefts of motor vehicles (30,232, minus 9.1 percent) and bicycles (292,015, minus 2.7 percent) were displayed. The reported pickpocketing decreased significantly, down 18.2 percent to 104,196 cases. Shoplifting fell by 4.1 percent to 339,021 known cases.
According to Welt, the number of reported dips fell to a historic low (97,504 cases, down 16.3 percent). By contrast, the so-called tank fraud, that is, gasoline theft, rose slightly to 72,424 known cases - an increase of 1.3 percent. Significantly increased by contrast, the authorities known distribution of pornography, by 13.6 percent to 11,435 cases. Again, more drug-related offenses were registered, 350,662 cases, an increase of 6.1 percent.
"Violence against police officers"
According to the report, there was even a 39.9 percent increase in 34,168 known cases of "resistance to state violence", such as police officers and law enforcement officials. However, new criminal offenses were created in May 2017, therefore the number can only be compared to a limited extent compared to the previous one.
Police union head GdP member Oliver Malchow told The World: "It's shocking to see the violence against police officers break down, and statistically, my colleagues were assaulted about 32 times a day last year If you count the resistance offenses, it's almost 94 daily. "
The chairman of the Federal German Detective Agency (BDK), Sebastian Fiedler, criticized "Welt", that the crime statistics only limited reflect the actual crime burden. Instead, he called for "periodic safety reports", which in the future would be prepared by an independent expert panel and presented every two years.