Violent crime

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The term violent crime is defined differently: In Germany, according to an agreement between the Federation and the Länder in 1983, this includes a number of offenses that are classified as serious or at least moderately serious crime . In contrast, the term does not formally exist in German-language criminal law .

Violent crime has been reported to have decreased in the western world . At the same time, countries with the corresponding data recorded an increase in the willingness to report. This means that the number of actual cases is assumed to have halved since the early 1990s.

definition

In Germany, the following violent crimes are summarized in the police crime statistics under the term violent crime:

Murder ( § 211 StGB ), manslaughter ( § 212 StGB), homicide on request ( § 216 StGB), dangerous and serious bodily harm ( § 224 , § 226 StGB), bodily harm resulting in death ( § 227 StGB), participation in a brawl ( § 231 StGB), rape and severe sexual assault ( § 177 , § 178 StGB), robbery ( § 249 to § 252 , § 255 , § 316a StGB), extortionate kidnapping ( § 239a StGB), attack on sea and air traffic and hostage-taking ( Section 239b StGB).

This definition only takes into account serious violent crimes, but not "simple" bodily harm ( Section 223 StGB) and similar crimes, although it cannot be denied that these crimes are related to violence or aggression .

In Austria and Switzerland there is no statistical record of violent crime under this term.

phenomenology

There are various explanations and theories for the origins and forms of violent crime. In criminology, factors promoting violence were found in the social environment (experiences of violence in the family, unfavorable living environment, poor peer group influences), in society (pressure to perform, poor future prospects, media influences ) and in the person concerned (lack of tolerance for frustration, lack of empathy). The prevailing opinion is that many problematic factors that influence one another, not only for a short time, are particularly unfavorable.

extent

Recorded cases of violent crime from 1987-2019 as a frequency number (per 100,000 inhabitants)

The number of violent crimes registered in Germany peaked in 2007 with around 218,000 cases. That corresponds to 265 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. By 2019, the frequency had decreased by 18% to 218.

The police crime statistics or the convict statistics only show the bright field . Violence research uses additional methods (e.g. empirical perpetrator and victim surveys) to make further statements on the extent of violent crime.

Statistically speaking, most violent criminals worldwide are young men, according to research by Henry Urdal from the Harvard Kennedy School (for the period from 1950 to 2000). As soon as 15-24 year-olds make up more than 35 percent of the adult population in a society - as is the case in most developing countries - the risk of conflict increases by 150 percent compared to a society with a Western European population distribution.

Increasing willingness to report internationally

Especially in Western countries is a long periods relatively synchronous crime decline , especially in violent crime and theft well documented. The frequency of violent crime changed less uniformly in different countries. The willingness of the victims to file a complaint increased everywhere. However, the periods of the increases were somewhat different in different countries.

In the United States, reporting rates (the ratio of reported to actual cases) of violent assault rose somewhat in the 1970s and rose sharply from the mid-1980s. Crime rates (the ratio of ads to population size) have been falling in western countries since the early 1990s. In the United States, violent crime reports decreased by 27% between 1991 and 2005. However, when changes in willingness to report are factored in, the numbers of actual cases fell by 51%. Similar declines were found in England and Wales , as well as Scandinavia , where victimization studies are also carried out on a regular basis .

Changes in reporting behavior, legal changes, an extended registration by the police and the changed social tolerance led to a significant increase in the number of cases compared to the actual incidents in the crime statistics of all developed countries. The current decline is underestimated and the previous increase is overestimated.

Dark field research in Germany

According to the first periodical safety report of the federal government on the dark field of violent crime (2001)

  • According to victim surveys, about 1 to 2% of the population become victims of a robbery or physical harm in the course of a year.
  • Large cities have a higher rate of victims of violence than rural regions. The differences, however, are by far not as pronounced as those that result from the police crime statistics, which is due to a lower willingness of victims to report in rural areas.
  • the willingness of victims to report it to third-party perpetrators is higher than to acquaintances or even perpetrators from family members. It is more pronounced in robbery than in bodily harm.
  • The representative, national longitudinal data required for an exact analysis of the development of reporting behavior in the Federal Republic is currently lacking. However, the information available from regionally limited research and youth studies suggests that the willingness to report has probably increased.

literature

  • A. Böttger, J. Liang: What is violence? Suggestion for the definition of the term and differentiation between different forms . In: C. Pfeiffer, W. Greve (Hrsg.): Research Topic “Crime” - Festschrift for Heinz Barth (= interdisciplinary contributions to criminological research . Vol. 6). Nomos, Baden-Baden 1996, pp. 309-323.
  • Günter Albrecht, Otto Backes, Wolfgang Kühnel (eds.): Violent crime between myth and reality . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 2001, ISBN 978-3-518-12222-8 .
  • Police crime prevention program (ed.): Ways out of violence. 2002.
  • Wilhelm Heitmeyer, John Hagan (Hrsg.): International manual of violence research. West German Publishing House, Wiesbaden 2002
  • G. Nunner-Winkler: Reflections on the concept of violence . In: W. Heitmeyer u. a. (Ed.): Violence. Development, structures, analysis problems . Frankfurt 2004, pp. 21-61.
  • Christoph Birkel, Helmut Thome: The development of violent crime in the Federal Republic of Germany, England / Wales and Sweden in the second half of the 20th century (PDF) , Der Hallesche Graureiher 2004–1, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute for Sociology, 2004
  • W. Heinz: Crime in Germany with special consideration of juvenile and violent crime . 2005 ( online ).
  • W. Heinz: The criminal sanction system and the practice of sanctioning in Germany 1882-2006 . Reporting year 2006, version 1/2008 ( online ).
  • Michael Walter: Violent crime. Forms of appearance - conditions of origin - answers . Boorberg, Stuttgart 2006.
  • Thomas Naplava, Michael Walter: Development of violent crime: Real increase or lightening of the dark field? In: Monthly for criminology and criminal law reform . 86th year, No. 5, Cologne 2006, 338-351.
  • Christoph Birkel: The development of violent crime in Germany - Theoretical explanatory approaches in an empirical comparison, Springer, 2015, ISBN 3658030429

Web links

  • Klaus-Stephan von Danwitz, Criminological Seminar of the University of Bonn: Violent Crime (2003)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Birkel, Helmut Thome: The development of violent crime in the Federal Republic of Germany, England / Wales and Sweden in the second half of the 20th century , p. 8, Der Hallesche Graureiher 2004-1, Institute for Sociology, 2004, online version ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.soziologie.uni-halle.de
  2. ^ Sandra Göke: Jugendgewalt in Deutschland, p. 3, Diplomica, Hamburg, 2010, ISBN 978-3-8366-9251-9
  3. ↑ Krimlex.de: Violent crime accessed on March 31, 2015
  4. ↑ Duden.de: Violent crime accessed on March 31, 2015
  5. ^ First periodical safety report, Federal Ministry of the Interior, p. 41 Berlin, July 2001, (online version, part 2)
  6. ↑ Violence and Crime, Volume 4, Working Conference of the Federal Criminal Police Office Wiesbaden from September 17 to 20, 1985, Wiesbaden 1985, online version ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF), ISSN 0174-5441 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bka.de 
  7. ↑ a b c d Michael Tonry: Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World, 43 Crime & Just. 1 (2014). P. 5.6 , accessed on June 6, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Police crime statistics , Federal Republic of Germany, 2004, p. 16.
  9. ↑ Krimlex.de violent crime (violence phrase) accessed on April 1, 2015
  10. ↑ Swiss Police Crime Statistics , Annual Report 2013, ISBN 321199467X .
  11. ↑ Martin Grassberger, Elisabeth E. Türk, Kathrin Yen: Clinical-forensic medicine: Interdisciplinary practical guide for doctors, nurses, lawyers and carers for victims of violence, definition . Springer, 2013, ISBN 978-3211994672 , p. 17.
  12. ↑ a b Police crime statistics. Federal Criminal Police Office, accessed on March 30, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Violence: Of men and mayhem, in: Special Report - The Young, January 23rd 2016, The Economist , January 23rd-29th 2016, 10-11.
  14. ↑ Michael Tonry: Why Crime Rates Are Falling Throughout the Western World, 43 Crime & Just. 1 (2014). P. 8 , accessed on June 6, 2019 (English).
  15. ↑ German Federal Government , First Periodical Safety Report of the Federal Government, Germany, 2001, p. 69