The police registered 9900 sexual crimes last year, 1100 more than in 2021. Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reports this based on new police data. It is the highest number in the past ten years. Assaults and rapes in particular were reported more than in previous years.
In 2013, the police recorded a total of 8,600 sexual crimes. This includes sexual assault, rape and fornication of minors. The number then dropped to 7,700 in 2015, before rising again to 9,100 in 2018. This may be due to the MeToo movement that emerged at the end of 2017, says a spokesperson. There were fewer reports in the following two years, but since 2021 there has been an increase again to almost 10,000 last year.
According to the statistics office, the latest increase is mainly due to an increase in the number of registered rape and sexual assault cases. In 2022, 2955 sexual assaults and 2885 rapes were reported, a record. A year earlier this was 2265 and 2400 respectively. According to Statistics Netherlands, this increase may also be the result of the increasing social attention for sex crimes. For example, the abuses behind the scenes at The Voice of Holland came to light at the beginning of last year.
Incidentally, victims of sexual offenses do not go to the police in most cases, according to the Security Monitor of Statistics Netherlands. In 2021, only 11.5 percent of victims reported what they experienced. That is considerably less than victims of other types of crime. There, 37.5 percent make a report to the police. People also sometimes wait a long time. Just over a fifth of the rapes reported to the police last year were committed in previous years.
There is a registered crime if the crime has been recorded by the police. It is not necessary that a declaration has been made.
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