Criminal offences

How many criminal offences are reported? Are Danes anxious about crime, and how many are in jail?

Note: Below, we provide links to data from Statistics Denmark and to others who make statistics on the subject. In some instances, the sources referred to below have content in Danish only or limited content in English.

How many criminal offences are reported? How many people are convicted?

Our annual publication on crime, "Kriminalitet" (in Danish, summary in English) or our subject pages can be used to access tables on reported criminal offences, victims of criminal offences, convictions, convicted persons by national origin and recidivism. Tabled that are more detailed are available in StatBank Denmark.

On the website of the Danish Police, you can find e.g. key figures (in Danish). A limited part of the website is in English) for criminal offences and the activities of the police. In the statistical system of the police, you can get statistics (in Danish) on reported crimes, charges, response times and processing time.

In 2023, the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit published "What we know about convicts and their crimes" (in Danish). The book provides, among other things, a thorough review of the development in crime and who is criminally active, as well as a comparison with our neighboring countries United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany.

Do you have anything on juvenile crime?

In our annual publication on crime, "Kriminalitet", a section deals with young people below the age of criminal responsibility who are reported to the police.

A report from the Ministry of Justice “Udviklingen i børne- og ungdomskriminalitet 2012-2021" (2022) (in Danish) deals with the development in the crime rate of children and young people and includes tables on the number of suspects or charged persons in the age group 10-17 years, disaggregated by municipalities and police districts. The hard core of young criminals is described in the reports "Ungdomskriminalitet - de mest kriminelle" (2017) on the most criminal children and youth, and "Udviklingen i ungdomskriminalitet - de mest kriminelle" (2017) on the development in juvenile crime and the most criminal children and youth (full reports in Danish, abstracts in English).

Local Government Denmark has publications under the subject "Kriminalitet blandt udsatte børn og unge i Danmark" (in Danish) dealing with vulnerable children and young people, and provides two 2019 key figures reports, one on charges for the 12-14-year-old children and young people, and one on the crime rate of 15-22-year-old young people.

SFI (now VIVE — the Danish Center for Social Science Research) has made an analysis "På vej mod ungdomskriminalitet" (2016) (in Danish) to find out which factors contribute to the risk of turning to crime as a young person.

The book "Hvad vi ved om børn og deres opvækstvilkår" (2020) (in Danish) — what we know about children and their home conditions — from the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit includes a section on social inheritance in crime.

The Danish Crime Prevention Council has released the reports "Fra barndommens gade til cyberspace" (2017) and "Unges kriminelle adfærd på nettet" (2018) (both in Danish) on cyber-crime by children and young people.

Kriminalforsorgen is the Danish Prison and Probation Service. It makes annual statistics on young people held in custody or prison (in Danish).

How many gangs and gang members are there in Denmark?

The Danish Crime Prevention Council has analyzes and statistics on the subject page "bander og rockere i tal".  They also commissioned a survey of Danes’ perception of and attitude towards gang and biker gang crime in and outside exposed residential areas. "Rockere og bander i Danmark og udsatte boligområder" (2021) (in Danish).

The Danish Police also releases an annual report on gangs and biker gangs (in Danish).The Ministry of Justice regularly releases reports concerning biker gang members and other gangs. See the respective years under reports by the Research Division at the Ministry of Justice (full reports in Danish, abstracts in English).

How many are in jail?

At the website of the Danish Prison and Probation Service, you can find information on the number held in custody or prison (in Danish).

A report (in Danish) is available from the Prosecution Service on the number of persons who are placed in solitary confinement.The Ministry of Justice also has reports on solitary confinement. See the respective years under reports by the Research Division at the Ministry of Justice (full reports in Danish, abstracts in English).

Are Danes anxious about crime?

The survey on quality of life also includes questions about safety in the local neighbourhood and trust in the police. The replies can be broken down by e.g. area, sex, age, income and education in the StatBank Denmark tables ”Quality of life by safety and appreciation” (2015).

The Danish Police makes a Safety survey (in Danish) that measures how safe citizens feel and their level of trust in the police. The Research Division at the Ministry of Justice has also published "Tryghed og tillid til politi og retssystem. Danmark i forhold til andre europæiske lande" (2021) (abstract in English).

The annual measurement of safety (in Danish) by TrygFonden includes a chapter on personal security. 

How many are exposed to violence, domestic abuse, burglary, identity theft etc.?

National Institute of Public Health has published a report in 2022 "Vold og overgreb i Danmark  2021 : Analyser baseret på Sundheds- og sygelighedsundersøgelserne 2005, 2010, 2017 og 2021" (Abstract in English). The report deals with both psychological and physical violence, intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

The Ministry of Justice issues a report on exposure to violence and other types of crime. See the respective years under reports by the Research Division at the Ministry of Justice (full reports in Danish, abstracts in English).

The Ministry has also published a survey on the extent of stalking (2018). The full report is in Danish, while an abstract is available in English.

Using questionnaires, VIVE has examined the extent of violence against a partner in 2012, 2016 and 2020. You can read about their findings in the report "Partnervold i Danmark 2020" (2022) (in Danish).

The Danish Crime Prevention Council has released a whole series of publications and reports on violence, exposure to violence, hate crimes, burglaries, cases involving knives etc. The Council’s website also has reports on the extent of cyber-crime (in Danish, a few other reports are available in English, though), e.g. identity theft and abuse of payment card.

Each year, the Danish Police analyses hate crimes (in Danish).

 

[This page was last reviewed in November 2023]