Crime on the Rise in Germany

German Interior Minister Otto Schily, presenting the police forces' official crime statistics report in Berlin on Wednesday, said he was worried by the increase in violent crime. But he said the overall figures were positive, adding that the 2.3 percent increase in the total number of cases processed by police was statistically insignificant, and that Germany was still one of the world's safest countries.

Police dealt with more than six million crimes last year, and solved just over half of them. Still, the government registered an increase in crime in the country for the second consecutive year.

No "Big Brother"

Schily (photo) said there was a rise of 5.5 percent in the number of reported instances of grevious or aggravated bodily harm. Although he said he did not want "Big Brother" state supervision, he said public places were becoming more dangerous and called for more widespread use of closed-circuit TV at crime hotspots.

Schily noted that the police manage to solve the vast majority of serious crimes. He said more than 95 percent of all murders and manslaughters were solved, while the figure was slightly lower for assault and bodily harm, of which almost 85 percent of cases are solved, and sexual assault and rape, where police report success in almost 82 percent of cases.

Drop in crimes committed by foreigners

The minister said the proportion of crimes committed by foreigners was down slightly. But at the same time, he added that the share of violent crimes committed by immigrants was alarmingly high at 25 percent, given that they make up just 10 percent of the population.

Schily said the areas where the most success in crime fighting was reported were those where new technology was being used to make police work easier. He pointed to a fall of 6.4 percent in the number of car thefts, putting this down to better security systems in vehicles and improved police strategies. He also noted that the incidence of car theft has dropped by almost two-thirds in the last 10 years.

The minister reported a similar trend in the number of burglaries, which he said fell by 2.7 percent in 2002, and by more than 40 percent over the last 10 years. He said this was down largely due to improved household security measures. On the down side, those who do actually get burgled have little hope of justice: the police were able to solve just 14 percent of break-ins last year.

Child sex abuse still rising

Schily said laws covering sexual abuse of children and minors required "further development" in light of the rising number of cases. Officially that number rose by 5.8 percent last year, but Schily also noted what he said was a high incidence of unreported crimes. The minister called for more extensive use of genetic fingerprinting in pursuit of sex offenders and tough sentencing for those convicted.

A fall in the number of minors suspected of crime was one of the brighter sides of Schily's report, which noted a drop of 8,000 in the number of criminal suspects under 14, down from 143,000 in 2001 to 135,000 last year.

Drug consumption down, drug crime up

Schily said the number of drug users in Germany and the number of deaths caused by drug use fell slightly, while the amount of drug-related crimes continued to rise. At the same time, police were able to solve more than 95 percent of drug-related crimes.

The police officers' trade union warned the government against further manpower cutbacks, saying the rise in violent crime could only be tackled with a strong police presence. It says crime has reached appalling levels in Germany, and estimates that only one-in-ten offenses actually make it into the statistics.

The conservative opposition Christian Democrats called for tougher laws. Spokesman Wolfgang Bosbach said the use of DNA testing to identify suspects should not be restricted to investigations into serious crimes.