Fewer minors suspected of crimes

22/10/2012 15:00

Number of minors suspected of vandalism more than halved in three years
Children of crime suspect relatively often in trouble with the police
More young than older crime victims

Suspects

In 2011 372 thousand crime suspects were registered. That was nearly 3 percent less than the year before. Compared to 2008 the reduction was no less than 19 percent. In the same period, the number of registered crimes fell by 6 percent. These figures are based on the publication Criminaliteit en Rechtshandhaving 2011 by Statistics Netherlands, WODC and the Council for the Judiciary published today.

There is an above average downward trend among young people. There were 54 thousand under aged crime suspects in 2011, over a third less than in 2008. The number of minors suspected of vandalism more than halved during this period. In the same period registered vandalism and public order crimes fell from 232 to 181 thousand (-22 percent).

Nearly 3 percent of all boys and almost 1 percent of all girls became crime suspects in 2011. These shares differ among municipalities. Rotterdam and The Hague had the highest rates of boy crime suspects among the major cities, with 6 percent. Emmen and Tilburg had the lowest rate, with 2 percent. The share of under age girls arrested was highest in Leiden and Groningen, with 2 percent.

Young people whose parents were crime suspects at some point are three times as likely to be in trouble with the police as young people whose parents were never suspects. In 2010 some 6 percent of children of crime suspects were arrested, compared to 2 percent of young people without a criminal parent.

Victims

A quarter of the population aged 15 and older had been a victim of crime in 2011, either from property or violent crime or from vandalism. This share has remained fairly constant in recent years.

Age is a major factor in the risk of becoming a crime victim. Over a third of the 18-24 year-olds became crime victims in 2011. The share among people over 55 was less than 20 percent, while 10 percent of the over 75 year-olds became the victims of crime.

Crime and maintaining law and order 2011

The above figures are published in Criminaliteit en Rechtshandhaving 2011. This publication, available in Dutch only, by Statistics Netherlands, WODC and the Council for the Judiciary provides an integral view of the developments in crime, crime victimisation, prosecution and maintaining law and order.