News Coverage of police crime statistics in Germany

Every year, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) publishes its police crime statistics (PKS). According to the PKS released in April 2024[1], the number of criminal offenses registered by the police in 2023 increased by 5.5 percent compared to the previous year. A particular focus of the media coverage of this year’s statistics: 41 percent of suspects do not have a German passport and are overrepresented. However, it is important to consider that the category ‘non-Germans’ in the PKS also includes offenses under immigration law that can only be committed by foreigners, such as illegal entry or residence. 

The German media and the political right are currently focusing in particular on suspects from Muslim countries. An example of this is this post by @ARD_Presseclub, a political TV talk show at Germany’s public broadcaster ARD, on April 13 on the platform X. 

One of the consequences of the published statistics was a public debate that primarily centered on a supposed correlation between crime and origin. The German media and the political right are currently focusing in particular on suspects from Muslim countries. An example of this is a post by @ARD_Presseclub, a political TV talk show at Germany’s public broadcaster ARD, on April 13 on the platform X. 

 
The post includes a quote from a journalist invited from Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a conservative Swiss newspaper. The quote says: “The connection between certain countries of origin and an increased propensity to violence is obvious. The suspected migrants are men from so-called predominantly Muslim countries”. The post thus postulates a connection between criminality, origin and religion that is not scientifically tenable but a frequently used disinformation narrative by right wing extremists. The person quoted refers to "men from Muslim countries", suggesting that Islam is the cause of crime. 

The No Hate Speech Movement of the German organisation Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen analysed and published such disinformation narratives about the immigration society on their website in May 2024. One of the narratives assumes that migrants are a security risk for Germany. This narrative assumes that migrants, often depicted as migrants from Muslim countries, commit criminal offenses more frequently than people without a migration background. In order to argue this, the crime statistics are interpreted selectively – just like in the example described above.[2] 

In fact, there is no demonstrable causal link between national origin, cultural or religious background and criminality. The overrepresentation of ‘non-German’ suspects in the statistics can rather be explained by factors such as age, gender or social situation: Among migrants and refugees, for example, young men are overrepresented, a group of people who commit the most offenses across all origins.[3] Since the end of the coronavirus pandemic, the number of asylum seekers and immigrants in Germany has risen significantly. The immigrant groups are younger and predominantly male and more often in a socially precarious situation than the German resident population. These factors influence the risk of criminal offenses regardless of national origin or cultural or religious background.[4] 

Should we therefore ignore the high number of non-German suspects? No, but a substantive debate should take into account the multiple risk factors to which non-Germans are more frequently exposed to and which make criminal behavior more likely. In this way, we could talk constructively about migration management and come up with helpful solutions. Also, as 75% of the suspects are men, perhaps we should urgently talk about images of masculinity instead of origin and an alleged cultural or religious background. 

Back to the Presseclub example: As Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen, we responded with a strong statement on Threads, Bluesky and on Instagram: “This question and some of the contributions at Presseclub are staggering: people's origin or religion can never serve as an explanation for criminality. Being a criminal is not innate or "ethnically" determined. To imply the opposite is called racism.“ 

[1] Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat (2024): https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/downloads/DE/publikationen/themen/sicherheit/pks-2023.pdf;jsessionid=B1BA79B34E28328FE9440D3085B52742.live862?__blob=publicationFile&v=3 

[2] No Hate Speech Movement (2024): https://neuemedienmacher.de/wissen-tools/falschinformationen/migranten/sicherheitsrisiko/ 

[3] Prof. Dr. Christian Pfeiffer, Prof. Dr. Dirk Baier und Dr. Sören Kliem (2018): https://www.zhaw.ch/storage/shared/sozialearbeit/News/gutachten-entwicklung-gewalt-deutschland.pdf 

[4] Christian Walburg (2020): https://www.bpb.de/themen/innere-sicherheit/dossier-innere-sicherheit/301624/migration-und-kriminalitaet-erfahrungen-und-neuere-entwicklungen/ 

This article was written by Get the Trolls Out! partner Neue deutsche Medienmacher*innen in Germany.