Frequency number

The frequency number (more rarely: frequency number; abbreviated: HZ) denotes the relative occurrence of an event or a characteristic in relation to the selected population group . It is irrelevant whether the person who wears the characteristic (e.g. left-handed) or who caused the event (e.g. criminal act) belongs to the population group or not. An example to illustrate this: If you want to determine how many out of 100,000 Germans got the flu in a year, z. B. also counts tourists, although they do not belong to the population group.

The frequency number helps to be able to compare data better because it relativizes the absolute data. This means that if 221,510 crimes were committed in Schleswig-Holstein and 224,775 in Hamburg in 2010, the frequency initially seems to be pretty much the same. If you take into account the different population figures (Schleswig-Holstein 2,832,027, Hamburg 1,774,224), the picture is completely different, because Schleswig-Holstein now has a frequency of 7,822 and Hamburg a frequency of 12,669 per 100,000 inhabitants.

criminology

In criminology , the frequency is a measure of the number of criminal offenses registered by the police per 100,000 inhabitants (e.g. of a federal state or administrative district) for a certain year (reference date January 1).

For example, if a total of 5,933,278 criminal offenses were registered in the Federal Republic of Germany in 2010, this results in a frequency of 7,253 based on a population of 81,802,300 people.

This means that for every 100,000 people in Germany, 7,253 criminal offenses are known to the police. Of course, it must be taken into account that the frequency figure is skewed by various factors. It is a reality that some perpetrators commit several offenses, on the other hand, many a crime is also committed by several offenders. It is also relevant that, of course, only those crimes are listed that are also known to the police, the number of unreported cases is probably higher.

This number is also referred to as the " suspect burden number " (TVBZ) or "crime burden number" (KBZ), which indicates the number of registered suspects per 100,000 inhabitants (for example, based on a certain age or gender group).

The informative value of this value is impaired by the fact that tourists, travelers, cross-border commuters and foreigners staying illegally in Germany or stationing forces and similar persons are not counted among the residents, but the crimes committed by this group of people are.

In the case of victims, the "victim risk" or the number of victims is the number of victims per 100,000 inhabitants of the respective group.

Individual evidence

[1] Bundeskriminalamt (Ed.): Police crime statistics Federal Republic of Germany - reporting year 2010 . Federal Criminal Police Office, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 60, ISSN 0943-4674 . Police crime statistics 2010 .

[2] Bundeskriminalamt (Ed.): Police crime statistics Federal Republic of Germany - reporting year 2010 . Federal Criminal Police Office, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 30, ISSN 0943-4674 . Police crime statistics 2010 .