Crime rates in EU drop slower
Crime keeps decreasing throughout the EU, but at a less steady pace than in recent years. This is one of the main conclusions of the recently published Eurostat report ‘Crime and Criminal Justice, 2006-2009’, in which statistics on various types of crime in the different Member States are monitored and analyzed. Though the trend of a decreasing crime rate is significant, notable differences between countries and types of crime remain.
Decrease in crime is stagnating
In general, crime rates have been decreasing since 2002. Still, in the now monitored period of 2006-2009 this decrease is stagnating and has even turned into an increase for some crimes. The crime which decreased most throughout the EU was theft of motor vehicles, while domestic burglary showed the biggest rise.
Important differences between and within countries
Countries where the total crime rate has continued to drop since 2006 are Malta, the United Kingdom, Greece, Poland and Cyprus. The biggest increase in crime was reported in Romania, Luxembourg, Sweden and Denmark. Crime rates tend to be rather higher in major cities than in the rest of the country.
Report displays general trends based on a number of statistics
Due to different police focusses, methods of recording and
proportion of reported to unreported crime, it is difficult to make
direct comparisons between countries. This report shows trends over
time to show a general picture in which such comparison is
possible. Apart from various types of crime it also provides
statistics such as the number of police officers and the prison
population in the different EU member states.
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Reference material
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Eurostat report | Crime and Criminal Justice 2006-2009
26 Jan 2012, pdf, 180KB