German Officials Estimate 60 Knife Attacks Per Day in 2022

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If one takes into account figures recorded and published by the state criminal police offices in Germany’s 16 federal states, the total number of knife attacks across the entire country exceeded 21,000 in 2022, which amounts to a staggering 60 attacks every single day, the German online magazine Tichy’s Einblick reports.

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The magazine writes that the 21,000 figure is “the lower limit of the phenomenon” since some federal states have ambiguous definitions for what constitutes a “knife act” versus a “knife attack.”

Figures from the various State Criminal Police Offices, which Tichy’s Einblick cites in its report, revealed that knife attacks were the most prevalent in Berlin, at 90 per 100,000 inhabitants (a total of 3,317 in 2022). After Berlin, Lower Saxony recorded the highest number of knife attacks per inhabitant, at 35 per 100,000 (a total of 2,377 in 2022), while North Rhine Westphalia was next on the list, having recorded 5,100 knife attacks in 2022, or 28 per 100,000 inhabitants. Fourth on the list is Baden-Württemberg, which recorded 2,727 knife attacks, or 25 per 100,00 inhabitants.

When asked by Tichy’s Einblick why such a massive discrepancy between the figures recorded by the state criminal police offices and those provided by the federal crime statistics and interior ministry exists, the BKA confirmed that “categories were omitted” and “could not be named.”

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In France, which in terms of its multicultural trajectory is slightly ahead of Germany, knife attacks are even more widespread, with a 2020 study by the National Observatory of Delinquency and Criminal Responses (ONDRP) revealing that more than 120 people are victims of knife crimes each day.

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