29. October 2024
Crime statistics 2023
In 2023, the total number of recorded crimes rose by 5.5 percent to over 5.94 million, according to the police crime statistics published in April. At the same time, the number of white-collar crimes fell by 46.8 percent (34,189 cases).
This significant fluctuation, however, is due to the fact that in 2022, a large-scale investigation involving a total of 33,738 victims and total damages of €17.7 million (fraud via an online dating platform) was successfully concluded by the police in Schleswig-Holstein.
The clearance rate in 2023 was 58.4 percent of cases (a total of 3,469,752 cases), which is higher than the 2022 rate of 57.3 percent, but lower than the peak of 58.7 percent in 2021.
Tax evasion offenses are not recorded in the police crime statistics published annually by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Federal Ministry of Finance publishes the number of tax offenses and tax-related administrative offenses in its October monthly report for the previous year. The October 2024 monthly report therefore shows a total of 47,900 criminal proceedings for tax offenses nationwide in 2023, initiated by the administrative fine and criminal proceedings offices. In addition, 5,000 administrative fine proceedings were concluded. The tax investigation unit handled an additional 34,600 cases. Of the 19,114 tax criminal proceedings discontinued pursuant to Section 170 Paragraph 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 4,792 were cases following voluntary disclosures involving an amount of tax evaded up to €25,000. In contrast, only 5,766 judgments and penalty orders were issued for tax evasion in 2023. The prison sentences and fines were based on €835 million in tax evasion.
The police crime statistics for 2023 can be found here: https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/kurzmeldungen/DE/2024/04/vorstellung-pks.html
The Federal Ministry of Finance's monthly report for October 2024 can be found here: https://www.bundesfinanzministerium.de/Content/DE/Downloads/Broschueren_Bestellservice/monatsbericht-oktober-2024.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4