Crime in Austria increased slightly last year. Compared to 2022, there were eight percent or 39,061 more advertisements. The main reasons for the increase are property crimes such as burglaries, white-collar crime and internet crime. It was clear that around 12.5 percent of all crimes already take place online.
The most important numbers at a glance:
- 520,010 ads were reimbursed in Austria in 2023 – 39,061 more than in 2022.
- The ads by area: Property crime (162,242), white-collar crime (103,330), violent crime (85,374), cybercrime (65,864 offenses) and organized crime (40,333)
- In the previous year were 329,991 suspects identified by the police. Around 45 percent of them come from abroad, most from Romania, Germany and Serbia.
- With 4,704 advertisements Smuggling the number has fallen by almost half compared to 2022.
- Slight decline in juvenile crime: 13.4 percent of the suspected perpetrators were under 18 years old.
The “2023 police complaint statistics” for Upper Austria will be presented by State Police Director Andreas Pilsl and the head of the State Criminal Police Office, Gottfried Mitterlehner, at 2 p.m. The OÖN will report.
Violence on the Internet
This means that, in addition to classic economic crimes such as fraud, classic violent crimes such as dangerous threats or blackmail are carried out via the Internet or are related to it. “We are also noticing in this area that crimes are shifting from the analogue to the virtual world,” said Andreas Holzer, head of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
34,069 reports related to fraudulent activities on the Internet, 17,154 to fraudulent data processing misuse, 3,891 to blackmail and 2,245 to images of child abuse or sexual-related depictions of minors. “The trend in cybercrime continues,” emphasized Karner.
More on the subject: Cyber security conference in Linz – “a ban on ransom payments would be effective”
Why there are more thefts
“Classic crimes” such as shoplifting or theft with stolen ATM cards have also increased. BKA boss Holzer attributes the increase to gangs that come from abroad and go on a thieving spree in Austria. “They are traveling groups of perpetrators. They returned following the corona pandemic and are now acting even more professionally,” said Holzer.
“Only” nine bank robberies
There were hardly any bank robberies in 2023; nine coups were carried out last year. “Ten years ago there were still 80 robberies per year,” emphasized Karner. There was also a decline in smuggling crime in 2023, which the Interior Ministry attributes to the use of a wide range of measures such as “Operation Fox”. During the operation, Austrian police officers were deployed in Hungary in cooperation with the authorities there. With 4,704 reports of smuggling in 2023, the number has fallen by almost half compared to 9,186 reports in 2022.
The “Big Five” in crime statistics
According to Karner, there were a total of 528,010 police reports in 2023. The largest areas in the crime statistics are divided into five fields: The most common ones in 2023 were due to property crimes Reports were filed 162,242 times. After that follows Economic crime with 103,330 offenses. Violent crimes were viewed 85,374 times last year. The Cybercrime resulted in 65,864 advertisements and the organized crime 40,333 ads.
13.4 percent of the suspects were under 18 years old
According to the Interior Minister, the number of resolved cases has increased by 8.2 percent. A total of 276,043 advertisements were resolved in 2023 – that is 20,867 more advertisements than in the previous year, according to Karner. There was also an increase in the identification of suspects: in 2023, 329,991 suspected perpetrators were identified by the police. This is an increase of around ten percent compared to the previous year. 77 percent were men.
13.4 percent were under 18 years old, 54.5 percent were 18 to 40 years old, 32.3 percent were 40 years old and older. 179,488 suspects (55 percent) were Austrians, 150,481 or 45 percent came from other countries, most of them with 17,990 people from Romania, followed by 14,727 from Germany and 11,067 from Serbia.
More on the subject: “We have to disarm the youth gangs,” said Interior Minister Karner.
5 focal points
The Interior Minister presented a five-point package of measures that can be derived from the figures now presented.
- The first point concerns the consistent implementation of the Criminal service reform with a focus on cybercrime, which was commissioned last year. This means 38 new criminal assistance services in all regions of Austria with more than 700 additional jobs in the next few years, Karner outlined.
- The pressure on the Smuggling mafia concerns the second point. “The smugglers avoid Austria,” said the minister.
- The third point concerns the Juvenile crime, such as the establishment of a corresponding task force. In this context, discussions regarding criminal responsibility and gun bans will continue, Karner announced.
- On the fourth point Burglary crime There will be more focus operations in this area in the future.
- The fifth point concerns the topic Foreigner crime. “There are certain nationalities that are conspicuous and it is also necessary to focus on these,” said Karner.
