Less abuse, threats and sexual offences: downward trend continues after peak in 2022 | Domestic

The number of reports of sexual and violent crimes has been on a downward trend for years, but in 2022 there was a sudden increase, from 80,000 to 85,000. That turned out to be a one-off, because last year the number dropped again to 80,000.

Almost half of the cases involve reports of abuse. The police received slightly fewer reports than in 2022, but still more than in corona years 2020 and 2021. The number of threats – the second largest category – did therefore drop considerably, roughly from 25,000 to 23,000. Remarkable, for a year in which it was often about politicians in particular who had to endure it on messaging service X and even in public, and therefore also had to be protected.

Whether two thousand fewer threats were actually made, or whether the decline is mainly because they are reported less often, cannot be determined from the figures. “I absolutely do not believe that we all have less faith in the police and the judiciary,” says criminologist Marijke Drogt, “but victims of a relatively ‘minor’ crime as a threat do indeed make a cost-benefit analysis: what does it help if I line up the evidence and physically go to a police station to file a report? And what am I getting myself into with that?”

The number of reports of sexual crimes — from sexual assault to sexting and from sexual assault to pornography — is still significantly higher at 8,200 than before corona, but there has been a clear decrease compared to the 9,000 registrations a year earlier.

The fact that the number of reported sexual and violent crimes is now already a third lower than in 2012 may have a few causes. To begin with, since that year, and the formation of the Rutte II cabinet, the political focus has been on tackling ‘high impact crimes’, such as violent crimes and home burglaries. There have also been some of these over the years less and less.

In addition, criminals also simply follow social trends, Drogt sees. “People spend less time outdoors, the same goes for adolescents, the group we know is most prone to crime, and crime is therefore also moving to the online domain, with phishing and other forms of fraud.”

Rotterdam ends the year as the violence capital of the Netherlands, calculated based on the number of reports per 10,000 inhabitants. With six percent fewer reports, the port city is doing much better than in 2022. In absolute numbers, Amsterdam has the most sexual and violent crimes, but corrected for the population, the city finishes second.

Cranendonck is new in the top five. The Brabant municipality, where one of the larger asylum seeker centers in the country is located, saw a striking increase in the number of threats and abuse. More sexual and violent crimes were reported there per 10,000 inhabitants than in The Hague and Eindhoven. Tubbergen, Renswoude and Bronckhorst were relatively the safest municipalities last year.

The total number of registered crimes did increase last year, reaching more than 800,000 for the first time since 2019. There were more, among others bicycle theftsmore cases of pickpocketing and shopliftingdrug trafficking and (online) fraud.