Rotterdam supplants Amsterdam as murder city of the Netherlands, more people die from homicide | Interior

These are hard numbers that hide a world of sadness. In 2022, 142 people died, sixteen more than a year earlier, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reports. The number of female victims increased by ten, to 48. The number of male victims increased by 6 to 94. Most victims were in Rotterdam (16), previously for years this was in Amsterdam, where ten people were now killed.

In six out of ten women who were murdered in the past five years, the suspected perpetrator was a (former) partner, according to the new figures from Statistics Netherlands. Family members can also be responsible for the death of women, which happens in one in five cases. The women were often victims in their own homes and killed with a stabbing weapon or by strangulation.

Men are usually killed with a fire or stabbing weapon. In three of the ten cases, an acquaintance was responsible for the homicide. The number of male victims between the ages of 20 and 40 increased, among women it was mainly people over 60 who died more often.

By the way: even though the number of deaths is increasing, if you compare the figures with 2003, you will see that the number of victims of a homicidal offense was much higher then, at 247. After that, the number gradually fell until 2016, especially among men. After a peak in 2017, the numbers stabilized to an average of 123 per year.

But it is not only adults who die, sometimes children are also killed. Between 2018 and 2022, 32 victims were under the age of 10: 17 boys and 15 girls. Almost all of these children (88 percent) were killed by their father or mother. In the same period, 41 children and (young) adults aged 10 to 20 were murdered.

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