Hacker News Reader

I can quote the German BKA:

number of crimes in 2016: 6,372,526

number of crimes in 2025 (last data): 5,508,559

https://www.bka.de/EN/CurrentInformation/Statistics/PoliceCr...

Awesome! But, looking at the numbers the decrease in totals are due to fewer registered "street crimes", less fraud and legalization of cannabis (removing a 183k comparable from 2016). Violent crimes however went from 193,542 to 212,335. With rapes almost doubling, going from 7,919 to 14,454 (82%). Murders remained stable though.

We can debate which of these crimes have a greater impact on the feeling of safety. Personally I don't really feel unsafe due to people being caught stealing a sweater or smoking weed (when that was illegal).

So I don't think this is as clear cut as the headline number makes it seem. I feel like it's valid if people want to put more weight on the violent crimes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com