Crime, criminal justice, prisonsPanorama
The "Panorama" offers an overview of key developments and trends in the topic of "Crime, criminal justice, prisons". This document features a text with many graphics and tables and is free to download as a pdf-file.
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Panorama for "Crime, criminal justice, prisons"
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368 KB |
Crime and criminal justice: Panorama
(xx-e-00.01-pan-19)
Swiss Federal Statistical Office FSO
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2010
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- Click on the chart to enlarge!
Excerpt
The number of convictions under the Penal Code remained practically constant until 2001; in relation to the resident population, they were even in decline. From 2002 to 2004, a sharp rise was observed, for the first time also in relation to the resident population. Since then, the numbers have not changed (approximately 28,000 convictions per year).
Property offences still constitute by far the largest group of Penal Code offences (half of all Penal Code convictions are handed down among other causes for a property offence). As for violent offences, in recent years there has been a marked rise in the number of less severe violent offences.
The panorama also includes:
- Traffic offences: The number of convictions for violations of the Road Traffic Act has increased about two and a half fold to approximately 54,000 (2008) since 1984.
- Offenders: Crime statistics show very clearly that women commit prosecutable criminal offences far less often than men. Women account for 16% of police reports (annual average since 1984), with considerable differences depending on the offence. Their share of offences against sexual integrity is particularly low (2008: 3%), and relatively high in the case of embezzlement (2008: 24%).
- Juvenile delinquency: In 2008, some 14,600 penal decisions against minors were issued. 48% were for property crimes and 26% for illegal drug offences.17% of convictions (approximately 2400) were issued for violent offences.
- Enforcement of penal sanctions: In 2008, financial penalties, i.e. monetary penalties calculated according to daily penalty units, were the most frequently pronounced sanctions. These accounted for 86% of convictions of adults. In 9% of cases, a custodial sentence and in 5% of cases community service was imposed as the primary sanction.
- Prison establishments: In 2008, there were 117 prison establishments (2007: 115) with a total of 6,736 detention places. On the reference day of 3 September 2008, 5,780 persons were in detention. Thus, the occupancy rate was 86%, the same as in the previous two years.
Last updated: 30.03.2010
