Migrants Make Up Nearly Six in Ten Violent Crime Suspects in Germany

Nearly six in ten suspects in violent crime cases in Germany were committed by foreign migrants, according to federal police crime statistics released last week.

Non-German foreigners make up a disproportionate number of suspected criminals and nearly 60 per cent of violent crime suspects, despite making up just 14.6 per cent of the population, statistics released by the Federal Criminal Police Office have revealed.

According to the data, foreigners without a German passport represented 111,517 suspects alleged of violent crimes out of the total 190,605 suspects for the country as a whole, or 58.5 per cent, broadcaster NTV reports.

The figures also showed that while the number of suspected German violent offenders rose by 2.2 per cent over the previous year, the number of non-German suspected violent offenders increased by 14.5 per cent, contributing to an overall rise of 8.6 per cent in violent crime reports over the previous year and the highest level since 2007.

Reports of theft also saw an increase of 10.7 per cent over the previous year, with non-Germans accounting for 187,000 out of the total 424,000 suspected thieves.

Excluding immigration crimes, the number of non-Germans suspected of any crime rose by 17.8 per cent in 2023 to 923,269 suspects, representing nearly half of the 2.25 million total suspected criminals last year.

The German broadcaster said that sociologists and criminologists within the country noted that there can be “distorted images from the simple division into German and non-German criminals.”

Arguments have also been put forward as to the possible explanations for the apparent higher criminality among foreigners within the country, such as the fact that most immigrants in the country are young men — despite many claiming to be refugees — and young men are the most likely to commit crimes of any group.

The broadcaster also posited that foreigners often experienced violence in their home countries before fleeing to Germany which may therefore “lower the threshold for using violence”.