Every year when Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office publishes police statistics for crimes committed in Germany, these statistics are of particular interest to the Alternative for Germany party, which is considered far-right in some of its wings. The party focuses its attention on the number of crimes committed by refugees, immigrants and foreigners residing in Germany in general? In 95 percent of the AfD's press releases, the focus is on non-German suspects, while crimes committed by German suspects are almost completely ignored, as proven by studies by media researchers.
However, the AfD's popular narrative, which claims that non-Germans are inherently more violent, is not true. Susanne Pretor, a researcher specializing in sociology and criminology and a professor at the Police Academy in Lower Saxony, carefully analyzed and examined crime data in Germany, in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Zurich in Switzerland and the Research Institute of Criminology in Lower Saxony. The analysis not only examined the “open number”, i.e. crimes that have been detected and recorded in police statistics, but also included the “hidden number”, i.e. crimes that are not reported or detected and do not appear in any official statistics and are investigated through representative opinion polls.
German perpetrators are much less reported
"Yes, police crime statistics show that people without German citizenship commit crimes at a higher rate than German people," Susanne Pretor told DW. But studies on the 'hidden number' prove that the willingness to report non-Germans is more than double, that is, foreigners are reported twice as often as Germans. In the hidden number you also notice differences between the two groups, but they are much less pronounced."
Therefore, crimes committed by foreigners are twice as likely to appear later in police crime statistics as crimes committed by Germans. The statistics also include all suspected cases, but they do not mention whether these suspicions have been proven.
When crime statistics are adjusted for reporting bias, the proportion of foreigners is not 2.6 higher than that of Germans, but only 1.7. This percentage is also consistent with the results of studies on the hidden number of violent crimes among young people. Accordingly, foreign teenagers and young people are considered to be approximately 1.6 times more violent than German young people.
Here it must be noted that age and gender are considered reasons for committing crimes. Foreigners in Germany have much more male youth than Germans, and male youth in all societies are more inclined than others to commit crimes. “Youth, masculinity, low level of education and a tendency to violence are all categories that promote a predisposition to violence,” says Suzanne Praetor. “Within this context a certain concept of masculinity plays a role, regardless of its source. But we do not observe a cultural factor, contrary to prejudices that claim that masculinity and violence play a greater role in other cultures.”
Praetor refers to a poll on acceptance of violence: in which five percent of German youth expressed their support for the use of violence. While the percentage reached ten percent among young people who do not have German citizenship. Although this percentage is twice what it is among German youth, it - according to the opinion of criminologist Praetor - is not sufficient to use the culture factor as an explanation model. But there is another factor that is very crucial.
Decrease in violence among adolescents and young people
Susan Pretor says: “Family education plays an important role in forming such pro-violence attitudes, because these attitudes crystallize at home. When a person experiences violence in his home, his relationship with violence is different from someone who has not experienced it at home.”
Praetor believes that Germany is on a very good path, even if it sometimes does not seem that way. She adds, "Parents resorting to violence in upbringing was still more normal 50 or 60 years ago than it is today. And the rates of violence among young people today are much lower than they were in the 1990s or at the beginning of the first decade of the twenty-first century."
Susan Pretor stresses the importance for her of contributing to making the debate objective. This is symbolically evident when looking at the statistics recorded by the police for serious violent crimes, such as grievous bodily harm, manslaughter and murder. “Out of every 100 Germans, 0.2 percent commit violent crimes, while the rate is 0.6 percent among non-Germans.”
But: “More than 99 percent of the people who live here in Germany - whether of German or non-German origin, that is, the vast majority here in Germany, do not commit any serious violent crimes at all.”
Germany must do more for prevention
Researcher Praetor, who specializes in criminology and also trains junior police officers, calls on politicians to highlight the positive aspects of immigration more. She says that the debate on the issue of migrants and immigration in Germany is very negative due to the purely focus on police crime statistics. She adds that the vast majority of non-Germans do well and integrate well into society.
Suzanne Pretor also calls on the government to spend more money on prevention. “Working with children and adolescents should start as early as possible, strengthening their social capacities starting from kindergarten and continuing in schools, while responding when specific incidents of violence occur,” she says. “It is also important to invest in infrastructure and recreational activities in specific areas. The lack of a reasonable daily program is a major factor in violence among adolescents and young people, regardless of their origins.”
Prepared by: Raed Al-Bash
