Knife Crime Soars in Germany’s Most Populous State

Knife crime is plaguing Germany, and in the country’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, it already rose sharply in 2023. Now, the latest figures for 2024 show this worrying trend is continuing, along with other serious crimes.

The state interior minister, Herbert Reul (CDU), said that there were 7,296 knife crimes last year, an increase of 20.7 percent. That comes after a 44 percent increase in 2023. These crimes include both the use of a knife and crime involving a threat of a knife, according to police data.

Like many other serious crimes, approximately half of the suspects are foreigners, equating to 47.6 percent. In the state, foreigners make up only 16.1 percent of the population. Germans, in turn, are often victims of these crimes, with 60.1 percent of all victims having German citizenship while 39.9 percent are foreigners.

As always, these statistics can be highly misleading, as many German citizens are foreigners who recently received citizenship or have a foreign background, however, Germany does not usually keep statistics about the foreign background of German citizens. One of the strategies used to ascertain how many foreigners are involved in a crime is to request the first names of criminals. In North Rhine-Westphalia, gang rapes, for instance, are revealing. Supposedly half of all gang rapes are committed by foreigners, but when the first names of suspects are revealed, it becomes clear that at least 75 percent of suspects have foreign names.

Interior Minister Reul, despite being the interior minister for years and overseeing a long-term trend towards more knife crime, says the police will now take action to stem the trend.

“I hope that we will see the first positive effects here in the coming year and that this knife violence will be curbed. Otherwise, we will have to make adjustments,” he said.

Notably, already last year in August, Reul presented a ten-point plan to tackle knife violence in public spaces. It appears that this plan has not worked.

It should be noted that crime, overall, is done 1 percent, however, this is a misleading figure. The biggest drop was seen in drug offenses, down over 30 percent, and this may have to do with the fact that the state legalized marijuana.

When it comes to serious crimes, they have seen increases nearly across the board, including murder and manslaughter (1.9 percent), assault (1.7 percent), burglary (5.2 percent) and domestic violence (1.9 percent).

In contrast, many other serious crimes have continued to increase. This applies to cases of murder and manslaughter (plus 1.9 percent), as well as cases of assault (plus 1.7 percent), domestic violence (plus 1.9 percent), and burglary (plus 5.2 percent).

Over a ten-year period, there has been a 20 percent increase in violent crime. Foreigners account for 41.8 percent of suspects in violent crimes.

Foreigners account for nearly half of all murder and manslaughter suspects, as well as half of all robberies. They represent a third of all domestic violence cases.

Reul described the violent crime statistics as a “sad state of affairs.”

“What doesn’t work elsewhere – education, schools, integration – ultimately ends up with the police. This also means: The statistics reveal the state of our society – of us,” he said.