Last year, the police handled 7,651 cases, which represents an increase of 28% compared to 2021.
Property crime accounts for 66% of recorded offences. Internet scams have also risen sharply, as has petty theft, which includes pickpocketing, for instance. Offences against individuals account for 17% of the total.
Minister of Internal Security Henri Kox said he takes the figures “very seriously” and that the authorities “are not trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation.”
The Minister did, however, point out that Luxembourg is experiencing “the same upward trend as the rest of Europe.”
“We are not surprised by the increase in crime after the end of the [coronavirus] restrictions,” Kox noted, referring to the end of the pandemic as “one of the factors explaining the increase in crime.”
A quarter of all recorded offences were thefts committed without the use of violence. That being said, the number of violent thefts has increased from 505 to 591 between 2021 and 2022. Young people under the age of 25 are “over-represented among the perpetrators of violent robberies.”
In 2022, there were nine armed robberies at stores and seven at petrol stations. This is a very slight decrease compared to 2021.
Scams and deceptions (+2,390 compared to 2021) are the most frequent offences against individuals, the police say, and they are most prevalent online.
On a more worrying note, the police have identified a “societal phenomenon” that has been on the rise in recent years: intentional assault and battery. The number of reported cases to police increased from 2,967 in 2021 to 3,339 in 2022.
The police specify that 80% of intentional assaults did not incapacitate the victim.
