Munich (dpa / lby) – In Bavaria, fewer young people and adolescents, but more children were registered as suspects by the police in 2021. This emerges from the annual report “Crime and victimization of young people in Bavaria” published on Wednesday by the criminological research group of the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Munich. Accordingly, the downward trend, which began in 2020 during the corona pandemic, continued among 14 to 17 year olds with minus 7.5 percent and among 18 to 20 year olds with minus 14.2 percent. In contrast, 17.5 percent more 8- to 13-year-olds became suspects.
According to the evaluation, there has been a sharp increase in suspected children, especially in the case of theft (up 28.3 percent), shoplifting (up 29.0 percent) and property damage (up 30.7 percent). Significant increases in violent crime such as dangerous and serious bodily harm were also recorded with plus 19.9 percent and plus 23.4 percent. However, in this group of crimes, young people and adolescents are still more numerous than children.
In the number of victims, there is a downward trend in all age groups, in children and young people by 4.4 percent and 7.3 percent and in adolescents by 18.3 percent. In 2020 and 2021, a total of 2,754 fewer crimes were counted than in 2019, which at minus 32.6 percent corresponds to a decrease of almost a third.
