Crime in Switzerland

In Switzerland, the police registered a total of 553,421 criminal offenses in 2009, including 51 killings and 185 attempted murders. There were 666 cases of rape. In the same year, 94,574 adults (85% of them male, 47.4% of them Swiss citizens) were convicted under Swiss criminal law. 57.3% of convictions were for traffic offences.^[1] In the same year, 15,064 minors (78.3% of them male, 68.2% of them of Swiss nationality, 76.3% aged between 15 and 18) were convicted.^[2]

Convictions for infliction of bodily harm have steadily increased throughout the 1990s and 2000s, with 23 convictions for serious injury and 831 for light injury in 1990 as opposed to 78 and 2,342, respectively, in 2005. Convictions for rape have also slightly increased, fluctuating between 61 and 100 cases per year in the period 1985 to 1995, but between 100 and 113 cases in the period 2000 to 2005. Consistent with these trends, convictions for threats or violence directed against officials has consistently risen in the same period, from 348 in 1990 to 891 in 2003.^[3][4]

Types of convictions

The number of convictions in the last five years is given in the following table.^[5] Each class of crime references the relevant section of the Strafgesetzbuch (Swiss criminal law, abbreviated as StGB) or the Strassenverkehrsgesetz (abbr. SVG, Swiss traffic laws).

Year	Total Convictions	Homicide (Art. 111,112,113,116 StGB)	Serious Bodily Injury (Art. 122 StGB)	Minor Bodily Injury (Art. 123 StGB)	Sexual Contact with Children (Art. 187 StGB)	Rape (Art. 190 StGB)	Theft (Art. 139 StGB)	Robbery (Art. 140 StGB)	Receiving Stolen Goods (Art. 160 StGB)	Embezzlement (Art. 138 StGB)	Fraud (Art. 146 StGB)	Narcotics Possession	Major Violation of Traffic Laws (Art. 90 SVG)	Drunk Driving (Art. 91 Abs. 1 Satz 2 SVG)
2005	85,605	93	94	2,459	413	109	6,557	489	1,262	910	1,484	2,846	22,163	15,776
2006	90,592	95	105	2,523	382	131	6,569	553	1,196	880	1,521	2,616	21,599	18,439
2007	84,665	93	88	2,248	380	135	5,979	522	922	807	1,607	2,462	21,431	17,355
2008	93,024	95	133	2,635	415	133	6,345	522	905	848	1,665	2,606	25,339	17,836
2009	94,574	84	118	2,578	366	108	6,947	514	924	820	1,506	2,708	25,434	16,708

Historic conviction rates

The historic conviction rates are given in the following chart:^[1]

Year	Total Convictions	Criminal Convictions			Narcotics Convictions			Traffic Convictions
		Total	Male	Swiss	Total	Male	Swiss	Total	Male	Swiss
1985	46,437	21,736	81.5%	67.3%	3,824	83.9%	72.6%	21,033	92.4%	77.3%
1990	54,879	21,167	80.4%	58.2%	4,156	84.9%	63.8%	26,471	91.5%	70.4%
1995	60,955	18,571	83.5%	55.0%	5,415	87.0%	56.2%	32,565	89.6%	66.5%
2000	68,526	21,052	85.6%	49.2%	5,661	87.5%	42.4%	38,082	88.1%	63.0%
2005	85,605	28,224	85.1%	48.9%	5,824	89.2%	40.6%	46,696	87.2%	57.8%
2006	90,592	28,656	85.2%	49.5%	5,668	88.4%	42.8%	51,326	87.0%	57.2%
2007	84,665	25,910	85.2%	51.1%	5,264	88.7%	41.4%	49,483	87.0%	55.8%
2008a	93,024	28,214	84.8%	50.6%	5,621	89.7%	42.0%	54,845	86.4%	54.6%
2009a	94,574	29,045	84.9%	48.1%	5,669	89.5%	39.9%	54,231	86.4%	54.5%

^a 2008 and 2009 conviction numbers may not include convictions overturned on appeal.

Age at conviction

The age of the individuals at the time of their convictions is given in this chart:^[1]

Year	18-19	20-24	25-29	30-34	35-39	40-44	45-49	50-59	60+
1985	8.5%	27.6%	19.1%	13.1%	10.2%	7.3%	5.2%	6.1%	3.0%
1990	7.0%	26.1%	20.3%	14.4%	9.8%	7.5%	5.4%	6.2%	3.4%
1995	5.2%	22.5%	21.9%	15.8%	11.1%	7.7%	6.0%	6.9%	3.0%
2000	6.3%	20.7%	18.0%	16.1%	12.2%	9.1%	6.5%	7.7%	3.3%
2005	7.5%	21.5%	15.9%	14.3%	12.2%	9.9%	6.9%	8.0%	3.8%
2006	7.2%	20.9%	15.7%	13.8%	12.5%	10.3%	7.3%	8.4%	3.9%
2007	7.2%	20.7%	15.3%	13.0%	12.1%	10.6%	7.8%	8.9%	4.4%
2008a	7.6%	20.6%	15.0%	12.3%	12.2%	10.5%	7.8%	9.3%	4.6%
2009a	6.8%	21.0%	15.5%	12.5%	11.7%	10.0%	8.0%	9.4%	5.1%

^a 2008 and 2009 conviction numbers may not include convictions overturned on appeal.

Prisons

At the end of 2006, 5,888 people were interned in Swiss prisons, one third of them on remand (or 79 in 100,000, comparable to the ratio in France; the USA has 740, Germany has 30 and Iceland has 29 in 100,000), 31% of them Swiss citizens, 69% resident foreigners or illegal immigrants; excluding remand: 36% Swiss or 32 in 100,000, 64% foreigners or 160 in 100,000.

Immigrant criminality

The crime rate among resident foreigners ("immigrant criminality") is significantly higher (by a factor 3.7 counting convictions under criminal law in 2003).^[6] In 1997, there were for the first time more foreigners than Swiss among the convicts under criminal law (out of a fraction of 20.6% of the total population at the time). In 1999, the Federal Department of Justice and Police ordered a study regarding delinquency and nationality (Arbeitsgruppe "Ausländerkriminalität"), which in its final report (2001) found that a conviction rate under criminal law about 12 times higher among asylum seekers (4%), while the conviction rate among other resident foreigners was about twice as high (0.6%) compared to Swiss citizens (0.3%).^[7]

In 2010 for the first time was a statistic published which listed delinquency by nationality (based on 2009 data). To avoid distortions due to demographic structure, only the male population aged between 18 and 34 was considered for each group. From this study it became clear that crime rate is highly correlated on the country of origin of the various migrant groups. Thus, immigrants from Germany, France and Austria had a significantly lower crime rate than Swiss citizens (60% to 80%), while immigrants from Angola, Nigeria and Algeria had a crime rate of above 600% of that of Swiss population. In between these extremes were immigrants from Former Yugoslavia, with crime rates of between 210% and 300% of the Swiss value.^[8]

The full report listed 24 nationalities plus the crime rate of Swiss citizens (fixed at 100%), and the average value of all foreign citizens combined, at 160%. Commentators expressed surprise^[9] at the clear geographical structure of the list, giving, in decreasing order, Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, Southern Europe and Western and Central Europe. The Federal Statistics Office published the study with the caveat that the sizes of the groups under comparison vary considerably. For example, the net impact of a crime rate increased by 530% among 500 Angolans will still be five times smaller than a crime rate increased by 30% among 46'000 Portuguese.

rank	country of origin	crime rate (relative value)	registered population (thousands)[10]	male young adults (thousands)[11]
1	Angola	6.3	4.4	0.54
2	Nigeria	6.2	2.9	1.5
3	Algeria	6.0	4.1	1.2
4	Côte d'Ivoire	5.9	1.7	0.44
5	Dominican Republic	5.8	5.9	1.0
6	Sri Lanka	4.7	31	4.4
7	Congo (Kinshasa)	4.7	5.8	0.78
8	Cameroon	4.4	4.3	0.97
9	Morocco	4.3	7.4	1.6
10	Tunisia	4.2	6.3	2.1
11	Iraq	3.7	8.0	2.9
12	Colombia	3.2	4.2	0.71
13	Turkey	3.2	73	16
14	the former Serbia and Montenegro (includes Kosovo)	3.1	188	36
15	Brazil	3.0	17	2.5
16	Egypt	2.7	2.1	0.81
17	Croatia	2.4	35	5.0
18	Bosnia and Herzegowina	2.3	37	6.2
19	Republic of Macedonia	2.3	60	12
	total foreign national population	1.6	1,714	330
20	Portugal	1.3	213	46
21	Italy	1.2	294	49
22	Switzerland	1.0	6,072	710
23	Austria	0.8	38	5.8
24	France	0.7	95	21
25	Germany	0.6	266	62

On 28 November 2010, 53% of voters approved a new, tougher deportation law. This law, proposed by the Swiss People's Party, called for the automatic expulsion of non-Swiss offenders convicted of a number of crimes, including murder, breaking and entry and even welfare fraud. As the proposal makes deportation mandatory, it denies judges any judicial discretion over deportation. An alternative proposal, that included case by case reviews and integration measures, was rejected by 54% of voters.^[12]

See also

• Gun politics in Switzerland
• Law enforcement in Switzerland

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Swiss Federal Statistical Office Verurteilungen (Erwachsene) - Daten, Indikatoren - Demographische Merkmale der Verurteilten (German) accessed 14 November 2010
2. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office Jugendstrafurteile - Daten, Indikatoren (German) accessed 15 November 2010
3. ^ Swiss Federal Statistics Office
4. ^ Swiss Federal Statistics Office
5. ^ Swiss Federal Statistical Office Verurteilungen für Verbrechen und Vergehen nach ausgewählten Straftaten (German) accessed 15 November 2010
6. ^ Swiss Federal Statistics Office
7. ^ Federal Department of Justice and Police study
8. ^ Neue Statistik: Tamilen sind krimineller als Ex-Jugoslawen, Tages-Anzeiger 12 September 2010.
9. ^ so Alard du Bois-Reymond, director of the Federal Office for Migration, see e.g. Blick, 12 September 2010.
10. ^ data from Swiss Federal Statistics Office
11. ^ aged 20–39; data from Swiss Federal Statistics Office
12. ^ "Swiss approve foreign criminal initiative". Swissinfo. 28 November 2010. http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/Specials/Vote_2010-11-28/News/Swiss_approve_foreign_criminal_initiative.html?cid=28899524. Retrieved 29 November 2010. 

External links

• Switzerland Black Markets