How safe do people feel in Germany?
What experiences have you had as a victim of crime?
And how pronounced is the dark field in different areas of crime?

“Security and Crime in Germany” (SKiD)

The dark field survey “Security and Crime in Germany” (SKiD), which was presented today at the federal press conference in Berlin, provides answers to these and other questions.  

Never before have so many people been asked about their experiences with crime: over 46,000 people took part in this survey. They provided information about how often they had been victims of crime in the past twelve months, reported their reporting behavior and their feeling of security. Opinions about police work were also part of the survey.

The results provide information about trends in crime development. They are a supplement to police crime statistics (PKS) and an important means of assessing the extent and consequences of crime.

A central finding of the current study is that many people become victims of crimes, particularly in the area of ​​cybercrime.

Around 14 percent of the population aged 16 and over fell victim to a cybercrime crime, such as online goods or services fraud or the misuse of personal data when using the Internet, in the twelve months before the survey - these are the highest figures in the survey. At the same time, only around 18 percent of cases were reported. In addition, 42 percent of those surveyed are worried about becoming victims of fraud on the Internet. This concern is much more widespread than the concern about being affected by other crimes. The risk assessment of becoming a victim of a crime is also highest for online fraud. 34 percent of the population believe it is likely that they will become victims of such crimes in the next twelve months.

If you look at the results in conjunction with the development of the number of cases in the police crime statistics (PKS), it can be deduced that a digitization of crime can be observed, which also represents a shift in the volume of crime into the dark field of crime statistics. “Analog” crimes, which are reported comparatively frequently, are declining. In contrast, crime in the digital space, which is reported less often, continues to increase. According to PKS, the number of thefts has fallen by 37 percent over the past ten years (2012-2021). Cybercrime crimes (computer crime/cybercrime), on the other hand, rose by 66 percent.

With these and other findings, the study provides clues as to how the fight against crime, but also prevention and victim support, should be directed at the federal and state levels in the future. The aim of the Federal Criminal Police Office is to regularly carry out the dark field study “Security and Crime in Germany” in collaboration with the federal states.

Information about the concept and implementation

  • The study “Security and Crime in Germany” (SKiD) is carried out jointly by the BKA and the police forces of the federal states. The states of Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringia also decided to increase the sample size in their catchment area. Hamburg and North Rhine-Westphalia did the same and each added their own question module.
  • A total of around 122,700 people nationwide were invited to take part in the survey. Citizens could either fill out a paper questionnaire or answer the questions online. Of these, 46,813 people took part. This corresponds to a response rate of 38.2 percent.
  • The participants were randomly selected from the population registers of randomly drawn communities in each federal state.
  • The results are representative of the population aged 16 and over living in private households in Germany.
  • Data collection took place from October 19, 2020 to January 29, 2021

Further information and the report on the study can be found on the BKA website at: www.bka.de/ SKiD (A population survey on victim experiences, fear of crime and attitudes towards the police. The dark field study by the Federal Criminal Police Office and the state police forces.)

Source: BKA

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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )