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The number of people mistreated in custody rose by ten percent in the past year
Photo: Cavan Images / imago images / Cavan Images
Last year, the police in Germany again registered more cases of child abuse and the mistreatment of those under guard.
This emerges from the police crime statistics that were presented in Berlin.
The number of maltreatment of those under protection rose by ten percent to 4918 cases, and the number of child abuse cases rose by 6.8 percent to more than 14,500 cases.
The number of recorded cases of child pornography increased by more than half (18,761 cases).
In addition, 152 children and young people died in homicides last year.
Of these, 79 were willful and 73 were negligent.
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The acts did not all occur in the past year, as Holger Münch, President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), explained.
The statistic is therefore an initial statistic, i.e. it records the cases at a point in time at which the police have completed their processing.
More than a quarter of the recorded crimes did not happen in 2020, but already before.
There is also a high number of unreported cases.
A direct connection between the increased numbers and the corona pandemic can therefore not be proven, said Münch.
Johannes-Wilhelm Rörig, the independent commissioner for questions of child sexual abuse, called the numbers "unbearable".
Behind it stands "ten thousand times the suffering of children and adolescents".
lmd / dpa