Teenage girls play an increasing role in crime. In 2022, a quarter of underage suspects were girls. Never before has that share been so large. They are mainly on the robber path.
This is evident from the Youth Crime Monitor, a report that the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC) publishes every two or three years in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
Low chance of being caught and lack of money
The low chance of being caught, boredom, peer pressure, a lack of money or community service that does not impress. For years, these have been the main reasons for young people to steal things from shops. Shoplifting is the most common crime. Boys still make up the lion’s share of teenage robbers, but girls are on the rise. The number suspected of shoplifting rose by almost half from 3150 to 4510 in 2022. The National Police was asked to explain the rise of the female robber teenager, but was unable to provide an explanation.
In 2022 there were a total of 6200 underage suspects of shoplifting. That is 2200 more than in 2021 and also more than in the past ten years. According to WODC and CBS, the strong increase compared to 2021 is partly due to the closing of the shops during the corona crisis.
Cybercrime, street robbery and robberies
In 2022, 17,500 young people between the ages of 12 and 18 were suspected of a crime by the police. That is 1.5 percent of the total number of young people. The level of juvenile crime has been falling for years. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of suspects halved. But the decline has stagnated in recent years and has even turned into a slight increase. In 2022, the number of suspects aged 12 to 18 increased by 12 percent compared to the previous year.
In recent years, young people have also been more often involved in serious violent crimes such as murder and manslaughter. But after a short peak, that increase has leveled off again after 2021. Young teenagers are also more often guilty of cybercrime, street robberies and robberies.
Highest number of young suspects in Eemsdelta
Home burglary and weapon offenses are crimes that almost only boys were suspected of. The number of underage suspects in a weapon incident rose by 7 percent to 1200 last year. Municipalities are struggling with young people walking the streets armed and not afraid to pull out a knife. One municipality after another is therefore introducing a ban on knives, such as The Hague recently.
Just over half of all suspects are immigrants. The figures from the WODC and Statistics Netherlands show that the number of suspects with a non-Dutch background rose faster than the number of indigenous suspects in the past year, namely fourteen against nine percent.
In 2022, 40 percent of all suspects aged 12 to 18 lived in one of the 25 largest municipalities in the Netherlands. Child suspects therefore relatively often live in a large city. Amsterdam has the highest number of underage suspects, Breda and Apeldoorn have the lowest proportionately.
The municipality of Eemsdelta with Delfzijl and Appingedam is one of the municipalities with the highest number of underage suspects. There are more than twenty underage suspects per thousand inhabitants.