Increase in Significant Rate of Stabbing Incidents
After the brutal murder of a policeman in Mannheim, there's a furor in politics. There's been a string of stabbing incidents in Germany recently, leading to one death. The question is, how dangerous are stabbings right now? Numbers provide insights.
Following the gruesome murder by an Afghan man, there have been numerous stabbing incidents in Germany over the past week: in Wolmirstedt, Sachsen-Anhalt, an Afghan man stabbed a man and then attacked partygoers at a European Championship football event. Two adults suffered serious injuries.
On Saturday, a 17-year-old Afghan man attacked a man in a park in Ingolstadt. In bavarian Schliersee, a 49-year-old German man attacked a policeman with a knife following a push that seriously injured an 84-year-old man. In Frankfurt am Main, a 31-year-old man was stabbed after a fight involving his group. A 30-year-old man was arrested - he was German.
Since the Mannheim policeman's death, there's been a keen focus on stabbing incidents. However, it's yet to be determined if these incidents, aside from the weapon used, share any commonalities. Nevertheless, the question remains: has Germany become dangerously violent? Are these acts becoming the norm?
While it's incorrect to say that Germany is dangerously violent, it is true that there are more reported stabbing incidents. Since 2021, these have been separately recorded in the police criminal statistics (PKS). As a result, the number of cases of serious and dangerous bodily harm, as well as robbery with a knife, has significantly increased from 10,131 to 13,844.
It's also a fact that the proportion of stabbing attacks in total violent crime has remained relatively stable. Between five and six percent of serious and dangerous bodily harm and between 10 and 11 percent of robberies were committed with a knife. However, it's challenging to extrapolate a trend from the three years of data collected. Violent crime as a whole is on the rise, and consequently, the number of cases in absolute terms. These figures are for the last year. The upcoming PKS will have figures for the year 2024.
Jochen Kopelke, chairman of the police union, confirms this increase in stabbing incidents. "We see it in the statistics, which always look at the previous year. And we experience it in the field. The knife is a particular focus in police work." The police are trained to handle situations where the opponent has a weapon. "The problem, of course, is that they are increasingly encountering situations where they don't expect it and therefore the police are increasingly being called upon, even to the point of using firearms."
Link to article about the number of politically motivated violent crimes
In the total number of approximately 14,000 violent crimes involving knives, there are various types of knife attacks included - from gas station robberies to drug deals – or even politically-motivated perpetrators. However, there are also separate statistics for politically motivated crime that the Federal Interior Ministry regularly publishes. These figures show clearly: right-wing extremists are responsible for the majority of politically motivated crime (PMK). In 2023, about 60,000 crimes were recorded in this area. More than half of these, around 29,000, were attributed to right-wing extremists. Perpetrators with a "religious ideology" come in fourth, after "PMK left" and "PMK foreign ideology".
A significant portion of these crimes are propaganda, hate speech online, or property damage. Politically motivated violent crimes were counted as 3,561 in 2023. One third of these were committed by right-wing extremists. The "religious ideology" category was assigned only 90 crimes in 2023. However, this was a significant increase compared to 51 in the previous year. The numbers for the past three years have remained at a low level. However, the areas of "right" and "left" and those that cannot be classified dominate the picture. In the latter category, many crimes are related to the Corona pandemic.
The number of observed Islamic threats, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), has decreased, as a statistic shows. After a peak in 2018 with nearly 800 observed persons, there are now approximately 500. Since 2000 in the Federal Republic, there have been eleven completed Islamic-motivated attacks or attempted attacks. Twenty-five were prevented, five failed technologically. The most serious attack occurred on the Berlin Breitscheidplatz. Thirteen people died when the attacker Anis Amri steered a truck into the Christmas market there on December 19, 2016. Amri was known to the authorities.
Young men from Afghanistan and Syria are underrepresented in the criminal statistics, according to Federal Criminal Police President Holger Münch at the presentation of the police criminal statistics in April. On the other hand, men from North Africa are overrepresented. Statistics like PKS and PMK have their limitations. There's an unknown dark figure of crimes, and recorded are suspicion cases, not convictions.
Following the grisly crime in Mannheim, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, along with the Vice-Chancellor of the Greens, Robert Habeck, advocated for the expulsion of crooks to Afghanistan. Recent intel suggests Uzbekistan might lend a hand. This step could be crucial, considering Germany doesn't have diplomatic ties with the Taliban government in Kabul.
Originally published on June 3, 2024
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Following the string of violent stabbing attacks in various German cities, there have been calls for stricter measures against terrorists and radical Islamists, as some believe these incidents may be indicative of a growing threat.
