Crime in Germany is handled by theGerman police forces and other agencies.
The official statisticsPKS 2018 of 2018 by theBundeskriminalamt for the year 2017 shows an increase of 39.9% for resistance and attacks against state authority, 13.6% in the spreading ofpornographic material, 8.3% in crimes against theGerman drug law, 6.1% fornarcotic-related crimes generally and 5.5% in violations of theGerman arms law. On the other hand, there was a decrease of 18.2% insexual assault,rape,sexual harassment including cases with lethal consequences, 16.3% inburglaries, 9.3% in violations of theimmigration laws, 7.6% infraud, 7.5% intheft and 6% instreet crime.[1]
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In the EU-SILC survey, respondents were questioned about whether they experienced problems with violence, crime, or vandalism in the area where they live. Between 2010 and 2017, the EU crime average dropped by 3%. All countries in the EU exceptGermany,Sweden, andLithuania showed a falling trend of criminal incidents.[3]
According to Germany's 2010 crime statistics, 5.93 million criminal acts were committed, which was 2% lower than in 2009.[4] According to the Interior Ministry, this was the first time the figure had fallen below six million offenses since 1991 (the year afterreunification), and is the lowest crime level since records began.[4] The rate of crimes solved in 2010 was 56%, a record high from 2009's 55.6%.[4]
In 2010, internet-related crime climbed 8.1%, with around 224,000 reported cases.[4] The number of house burglaries in 2010 also increased by 6.6%.[4]
According to 2015 statistics, there were 127,000 victims of domestic violence. (German:Häusliche Gewalt) 82% of the victims were female. This represented an increase of 5.5% over 2012 statistics. The most commonly reported crime was bodily harm, defined as a slap or a strike of sufficient force to warrant prosecution. Other common crimes were threats (14.4%), grievous bodily harm (German:schwere Körperverletzung), and injury with a deadly outcome (German:Verletzung mit Todesfolge) at 12%. A fourth of the suspects were reported to be intoxicated from the consumption ofalcohol.[5]
Ex-partner victims were mostly targeted bystalking.[5]
The homicide rate in Germany is similarly low to the EU and other developed countries. Homicides increased rapidly in the early 1990s, increasing from 931 in 1990 to 2,032 - 2.5 per 100,000 in 1995 and gradually decreasing in the next 15 years before stabilizing at lower rates from around 2010 (0.98 per 100,000 or 783) to the present with 782 in 2020 at a rate of 0.93 per 100,000.[6]
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In the 1990s, the power balance changed in the red light districts of Germany when Russian, Yugoslav, and Albanian organizations started to operate. In parts of Germany, police asked themselves whether they had suppressed German gangs too much as the gangs that took over were more brutal foreign gangs.[8]
In 2017, statistics suggested that German citizens constitute the largest group of suspects in organized crime trials. From 2016 to 2017, the proportion of non-German citizen organized crime suspects increased from 67.5% to 70.7%. 14.9% of the German citizens involved held different citizenship at birth.[7]
The'Ndrangheta,Camorra, andMafia all operate in Germany. The 'Ndrangheta has the most robust presence. There are an estimated 1,200 members of the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta active in Germany, mostly in the cocaine trade. Apart from the 'Ndrangheta, the Neapolitan Camorra has also infiltrated the construction industry in Germany. Five Sicilian Mafia groups are active in the country, but seem to have lost power.[9] Italian crime groups can mostly be found in theRuhr district and in the west of Germany.
In December 2018, German police conducted an operation against the 'Ndrangheta in Germany and arrested 90 suspects for suspected drug dealing and money laundering. Forty-seven suspects were prosecuted.[10]
OMCGs such asHells Angels,Bandidos,Gremium and more recently,Satudarah,Rock Machine andNight Wolves, are active throughout Germany. While not all members of motorcycle clubs are criminals, many are reputed to be involved in thered-light districts and thebouncer scene, who control a large portion of the drug trade within bars and clubs.[9]
People from theBalkans have strong connections to their home country where they can go underground when they want to evade police. Mafia gangs from Kosovo, Croatia, and Albania have close-knit structures similar to those of the Arab clans. Gangs from Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina have a strong tendency to use violence and according to police, are not discouraged by ordinary police as they have fought in theYugoslav Wars. A number of these gangsters are ex-special forces who served under warlords during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Gangs from the Balkans are active in illegal gambling, protection rackets, narcotics trade and human trafficking. The Yugoslav wars also mean these gangs have access to firearms, where 700 thousand weapons were stolen in Albania alone.[11]
TheZemun clan is active in Germany and mainly involved indrug trafficking andprostitution. Members are largely ethnicSerbs, some of them former soldiers, butMontenegrins andBosniaks from the Serbian region are part of the ex-Yugoslavian gangs as well.[12]
Russian-speaking crime groups, in particular, theTambov gang are active in cities such asDüsseldorf.Money laundering,prostitution andextortion seem to be their activities of choice. Aside from the Russian groups,Georgian,Armenian andChechen crime groups are active in Germany as well. Very often these gangs and the Russian groups are named together in one breath even when they have little to do with each other.
Another major form of Russian-speaking organized crime in Germany consists of so-called criminalAussiedler families.Aussiedlers are ethnicGermans (also calledVolga Germans,Russia Germans) that were born in the formerSoviet Union. While a lot ofAussiedlers adapted well and quickly mastered the German language, a lot of families held onto the traditional lifestyle they lived inRussia and surrounding states. This led to the formation of individual as well as clan-based groups ofAussiedlers involved in organized criminal activities such asdrug trafficking,extortion,prostitution, as well as extreme violence. Due to a large number ofAussiedlers they are seen as the major form of Russian organized crime in Germany.[13]
Middle Eastern crime clans have become a major player in the underworld of Germany since the mass emigration of large Middle Eastern families, also calledGroßfamilie. Especially in cities such asBerlin,Hamburg, andBremen Middle Eastern clans are highly active inheroin trafficking as well as being involved in thebouncer-scene. Middle Eastern crime families mostly have origins inLebanon (mainly in Hamburg).[citation needed]
Middle Eastern crime clans come from different backgrounds, but the most numerous of them are the Lebanese clans such as theAl-Zein Clan and theMiri clan amongst others.[citation needed]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Almanya'daki Türk çetesi 36 Boys (Turkish Gangs in Germany) Al-Jazeera |
Turkish crime groups which consist of mafia clans from Turkey are active throughout Germany inextortion,weapon trafficking anddrug trafficking. Often the gangs can be linked to political groups from their home country, such as theGrey Wolves for right-wingTurks andDev Sol for left-wing Turks.
In 2014, the annual report on organized crime presented inBerlin by Federal Minister of the InteriorThomas de Maizière, showed that there were 61 Turkish gangs in Germany. According to the report, alongside their more traditional fields of drug smuggling, gangs are also increasingly turning their attention to burglary, car theft, and fraud. 10% of Germany's gang members were reported to beTurkish and according to statistics, the activity ofTurkish gangs in Germany had decreased.[14][15]
In 2016,Die Welt andBild reported that the new Turkish motorbike gang,Osmanen Germania, was growing rapidly. The newspaperHannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung claimed that the Osmanen Germania was advancing more and more into thered-light districts, which increases the likelihood of a bloody territorial battle with established gangs like theHells Angels Motorcycle Club and theMongols Motorcycle Club.[16][17][18][19][20][21]
Afghan clans are active inHamburg, a city with a large Afghan population. Like theTurkish as well asAlbanian gangs in the city, Afghan organized crime is active inhashish andheroin trafficking,extortion andprostitution.[22][23]
Moroccan organized crime groups, have been reported inFrankfurt. Next to theSerbian mafia and Balkan gangs, the Moroccan organized crime has become one of the active main players in the Frankfurt underworld forheroin trade as well as other criminal activities.[24]
Vietnamese groups active inhuman trafficking andcigarette smuggling have been reported in Germany.Chinese Triads on the other hand have also been reported but don't seem to have substantial power in Germany.[9]
Transparency International’s Global corruption barometer 2013 revealed thatpolitical parties and businesses are the most corrupt institutions inGermany. The same report also indicated thatpetty corruption is not as uncommon as otherEuropean countries. The survey showed that 11% of the respondents claim to have been asked to pay a bribe at one point in their life and only a few of those said that they had refused to pay the bribe.[25]
| Share of foreign nationals among 2017 crime suspects | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pickpocketing | 74.4% | |||
| Forgery of official documents | 55.4% | |||
| Burglaries | 41.3% | |||
| Rapes and sexual assaults | 37% | |||
| All types | 34.7% | |||
| Social benefit fraud | 34.1% | |||
| Murder and manslaughter | 29.7% | |||
| Share of population | 12% | |||
| Source: Wall Street Journal[26] | ||||
In 2018,The Wall Street Journal analyzed German crime statistics for crime suspects and found that the foreigners, overall 12.8% of the population, make up a disproportionate share of crime suspects (34.7%), see horizontal bar chart.[26]
In 2016, 31.4% of all convicted offenders were foreigners,[27] about 3 times higher than the percentage of foreigners living in Germany.[28]
According toThe Huffington Post in February 2018, out of each of the 15state justice ministries, 12,300 Muslims are in prison. This constitutes about 20% of the 65,000 prison population in Germany, proving to be an over-representation. The highest shares are in city states ofBremen (29%),Hamburg (28%) but the share is high also in large states such asHessen (26%)Baden-Württemberg (26%). The share is lower in the former East Germany.[29]
In 2018, the interior ministry published an analysis of the Federal Police Statistic (PKS) for the first time, which included all the people who came via the asylum system into Germany.[30] The report found that the group defined as immigrants, which constitutes 2% of the total population, makes up 8.5% of all crime suspects.[31]
Crimes such asdrug trafficking,weapon trafficking,extortion,prostitution,money laundering andcontract killing are mostly present in poorly maintained areas of urban centers such asBerlin,Frankfurt,Hamburg,Hannover,Duisburg,Cologne orDüsseldorf.
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