Sex crimes rose in 2020, while break-ins and theft fell.
How the corona pandemic has affected crimes in the Free State, Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich explained in Munich with figures.
In 2020, 116,980 people were convicted in Bavaria
There were 16 murders, but fewer break-ins and thefts than usual
Penalties for emergency fraud and curfews have formally exploded
Munich - Georg Eisenreich (50, CSU) gets serious when it comes to sexual crimes. "Those are bad numbers," says the Justice Minister. There were a total of 1,756 convictions in the Free State in 2020 - an increase of 12.8 percent. Rape, on the other hand, rose from 116 to 134, plus there were 322 cases of sexual abuse.
On Wednesday, Eisenreich presented the crime statistics for 2020 in the Munich Palace of Justice.
The increase in child pornography is therefore frightening in Bavaria: 473 people were convicted of acquiring, owning or distributing files.
The increase in the first Corona year was more than a quarter compared to 2019. When presenting these figures, the Minister of Justice clearly shows how stressful he finds it.
Behind every single case, he emphasizes, lies “the unbelievable suffering of a child.” The fact that so many more people in the Free State have child pornographic material on their PC or smartphone is also a “downside of digitization”.
To counteract this, Eisenreich has strengthened the investigation structures in the Free State.
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Georg Eisenreich (CSU), Justice Minister of Bavaria, speaks at the press conference.
© Matthias Balk / dpa
Crimes in Bavaria: more fraud, less break-ins and theft
The numbers from 2020 clearly show how Corona has changed crime in the Free State.
Burglaries fell by around ten percent to 210 acts.
No wonder, because more people were at home.
In addition, thefts decreased to 13,189 acts (minus 6.2 percent).
Physical injuries have even fallen continuously since 2017 with 11,352 offenses: In 2020 the number was only 8972 convictions.
Subsidy fraud, on the other hand, has risen enormously: in 2020, 70 Bavarians were convicted for illegally requesting immediate Corona aid - in the year there were only 14 offenses in this area.
The Free State lists 40 convictions for violations of the Infection Protection Act - for example because citizens did not adhere to the curfew.
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The criminal justice center in Munich: Thousands of perpetrators are convicted here every year
© Sven Hoppe / dpa / archive image
Murder never expires and remains at a similar level in the statistics: there were 16 in 2020 in all of Bavaria, plus 20 attempted murders and 52 convictions for manslaughter.
"The risk of becoming a victim of a serious crime in Bavaria is very low," said Eisenreich, who thanked all emergency services warmly.
Judgments in the Free State: A total of 1690 perpetrators had to go to prison
In total, 116,980 people were convicted in the Free State.
That is 3.5 percent less than in 2019. Because of Corona, fewer processes took place.
It is noticeable that in 83 percent of all cases men are the perpetrators.
Almost every second offender had a criminal record.
A total of 1,690 criminals had to be behind bars, while 6,841 people received parole.
The majority of all judgments are clearly fines at 84 percent (89564 judgments).
