The number of sexual offenses in Berlin rises to a record high

Berlin - The number of sexual offenses in Berlin reached a new high in 2020. 4,468 people have been victims of a sexual offense, according to a response to a parliamentary question by MP Marcel Luthe (Free Voters), which newspaper Welt has received in advance.

According to crime statistics, 4,468 people were victims of sexual offenses in Berlin last year. This is a slight increase compared to 2019 (4438 victims) and a significant increase compared to 2018 (4040 victims). 610 people suffered physical injuries, 15 people were seriously injured and one person was fatally injured.

"While minor offenses are falling in Berlin, the so-called victim offenses that cannot be ignored have continued to increase," Luthe told the newspaper. In his opinion, victims of rape in particular should be placed at the center of police action. "Protecting citizens from violence and securing their freedom is the central core task of the state, which Berlin obviously does not fulfill," Luthe criticized.

Victim offenses continued to increase in 2020
According to the police, there were particularly many attacks in three places. These include Alexanderplatz, where 146 crimes took place, the center of Wedding with 86 reported crimes and Tempelhof with 85 crimes. Since crime on Alexanderplatz has increased in recent years, there has been a separate police station in the middle of the square.

Of the 3,121 suspects identified, 94.9 percent were male, 35.8 percent did not have German citizenship. According to the Senate Department for Home Affairs, no figures are available for the proportion of suspects with a migration background. This information would not be included in the statistics, as a Senate spokesman said to Junge Freiheit. The proportion of suspects under the age of 21 was 23.6 percent.

According to the newspaper, the most significant increase in the statistics for victims of sexual offenses has so far been from 2016 (2,669 victims) to 2017 (3,654 victims). At that time, sexual criminal law was tightened by introducing the criminal offense of sexual harassment. Since then, not only forced sex with violence or threats of violence is punishable, but also when a perpetrator disregards the victim's "recognizable consent". Then up to five years imprisonment threatened.

In 2020, the security service of the Berlin Transport Service registered a significant increase in the number of sexual offenses, even though there had been a lower number of visitors on the trains in the past year. 150 sexual assaults were counted in 2020. This had also resulted in a request for information from the then non-attached MP Marcel Luthe.

Source: Junge Freiheit