Press release No. 369 of 27 September 2018
WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) 4.9 million criminal investigation proceedings were completed by public prosecution offices in Germany in 2017. This was a decrease of 6.2% on 2016 (about 5.2 million proceedings).
According to the procedural law in Germany public prosecution offices have to lead and finish pre-court criminal investigation proceedings. An investigation may result in charges being pressed, however, from a statistical point of view, this is not the most frequent outcome.
Regarding the type of offence as in previous years the contribution of offences against property was about one third of all criminal proceedings in 2017. About 18% of all criminal proceedings in 2017 referred to road traffic events. Offences against life and health were about 9%. About two third of the total change between 2017 and 2016 (-232 003 proceedings) referred to the Residence Act. In 2017 the Residence Act was topic in 4.3% of all criminal proceedings compared to 8.5% in 2016.
| Offence group | 2016 | 2017 | Change | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | % | Count | % | Count | % | |
| 1 Total number of criminal investigation proceedings against known suspects (JS-Register). Only acts violating criminal law excluding acts violating administrative law. | ||||||
| Total proceedings completed 1 | 5.181,670 | 100.0 | 4.858,212 | 100.0 | -323,458 | -6.2 |
| Offences against the state | 39,584 | 0.8 | 34,246 | 0.7 | -5,338 | -13.5 |
| Sexual offences | 55,837 | 1.1 | 63,053 | 1.3 | 7,216 | 12.9 |
| Offences against life and health | 468,789 | 9.0 | 456,777 | 9.4 | -12,012 | -2.6 |
| Offences against property | 1.728,189 | 33.4 | 1.640,039 | 33.8 | -88,150 | -5.1 |
| Road traffic offences | 863,104 | 16.7 | 865,225 | 17.8 | 2,121 | 0.2 |
| Economic crimes | 142,635 | 2.8 | 135,836 | 2.8 | -6,799 | -4.8 |
| Environmental crimes | 15,931 | 0.3 | 14,640 | 0.3 | -1,291 | -8.1 |
| Offences commited in public offices | 35,828 | 0.7 | 32,577 | 0.7 | -3,251 | -9.1 |
| Acts violating the Residence Act | 438,544 | 8.5 | 206,541 | 4.3 | -232,003 | -52.9 |
| Acts violating the Narcotics Law | 347,430 | 6.7 | 374,020 | 7.7 | 26,590 | 7.7 |
| Other offences | 1.045,799 | 20.2 | 1.035,258 | 21.3 | -10,541 | -1.0 |
