Sex and economic crime increases in Norway
There has been a decline in the total registered crime in Norway, but sexual offenses and economic crime have increased. Processing time is also rising for profit related to gain.
This is stated in the STRASAK (crimes) report for the first four months of the year. The Police and Norwegian Public Prosecutors office have collaborated on the report, which reveals that in the first tertiary of the year, 98,057 offenses were reported. This is a decline of 1.3 per cent compared to the same period last year.
The decline has been particularly notable for registered crimes for profit. Compared with the first tertiary last year, these offenses were reduced by 3.1 per cent. The number of drug related offenses also shows a marked decline.
The number of offenses involving violence shows a slight decline compared with the first tertiary last year, but there has been an increase in the cases involving abuse in close relationships among other crimes.
Sex and economics
Even though the police have received fewer reported criminal cases, there has been an increase in some categories. For sexual offenses, there has been an increase of 21.3 since last year. In particular, there seem to be issues related to the internet, including a large number of victims under 14 years old, which has increased.
The number of reported economic violations in Norway increased by a whooping 272.8 per cent in the period between the first tertiary 2014 and 2018. The increase is due to the fact that normal fraud is now considered as economic crimes. Of the 9,345 reports of such offenses in the first tertiary, 5,965 fraud cases is recorded. They were previously classified as crimes for gain.
If fraud cases are removed from the data, the number of reports for economic crime has increased by 34.8 per cent since the first tertiary 2014, and 10.5 per cent compared to the same period last year.
From the first tertiary 2017 to the first tertiary this year there were 936 more cases involving economic crimes. Fraud accounts for nearly two thirds of these.
Worries about processing time
The number of cases that are finalized has been reduced somewhat. Compared with the first 4 months last year, the decline is 1.9 per cent. The solving rate for the prioritized areas of violence and sexual abuse shows a slight increase, while gain still has a low number of cases that are finalized .
The processing time for violent cases with a stated 90-day processing time has increased. The average processing time for these cases is currently 141 days.
– It is worrying that there is an increase in processing time for these cases, as it has been like that over time, and it has repeatedly been reminded that the cases are to be given priority, the STRASAK report states.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
