According to the study, foreigners commit more acts of violence than Germans - the researcher sees no culture factor

According to a current data analysis, non-German people are more likely to commit crimes than Germans. The difference runs through all types of crime to varying degrees and is particularly clear in violent acts, explained criminologist Susann Prätor from the Lower Saxony Police Academy, one of the authors of the study.

According to this, 0.2 percent of all Germans and 0.6 percent of all non-Germans were registered in the police crime statistics (PKS) in 2025 due to a serious act of violence.

When viewed together with a dark field study, the Lower Saxony Survey, the differences between Germans and non-Germans were smaller. But the trend remains, emphasized Praetor.

For the Lower Saxony Survey, the Lower Saxony Criminological Research Institute has been surveying young people about crime every two to three years since 2013. Praetor and two other researchers carried out the evaluation “Foreign Crime – A Data Analysis” on behalf of the Berlin-based media service Integration.

The analysis of the data reveals two significant factors for the increased crime rate among foreigners, said Praetor. On the one hand, among all people in Germany the willingness to report non-German people is about twice as high as that of Germans. In addition, non-German young people are almost twice as likely to have a positive attitude towards violence as German adolescents.

However, as is often claimed, this cannot be attributed to a “cultural factor,” emphasized the professor. Only just under ten percent of foreign young people have a positive attitude towards violence. “For a cultural characteristic, a significantly higher proportion of members of a cultural group would have to share the attitude.”

Other reasons include age and gender: there are more young men among foreigners who are most prone to crime in all societies. The socio-economic situation also plays a role.

However, the researchers emphasized that, overall, less than one percent of both Germans and foreigners were involved in violent crime. In both population groups, over 99 percent did not commit a violent crime.