Serious crime in a number of categories, including murder, has jumped in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s largest state by population. Foreigners make up a worrying share of suspects in these serious crimes as well.
Overall, crime fell modestly in 2025, with police registering around 1.36 million offenses — roughly 3 percent fewer than the 1.4 million recorded the previous year. However, serious crimes remain highly elevated, including knife murders, which actually rose in 2025.
Homicides and intentional homicides rose to 508 cases, representing a 6.1 percent increase, the highest level in 10 years. Incredibly, 49.9 percent of suspects are foreigners for this crime, with a population share of 16 percent. Similar data is seen in other states, such as Berlin. On a nationwide scale, the proportion of foreigners is rising in tandem with growing violence.
Overall, violent crime inched lower, but it is lower from a highly elevated position. In 2024, there was a sharp spike in violent crime, rising 21 percent from 2023.
Other serious crimes, however, saw a jump. Sexual offenses rose to 32,144 cases, a 5.2 percent increase, including rapes jumping 8.5 percent with 3,784 victims. Since 2016, the number of sexual offenses has tripled, with 27.3 percent of suspects listed as foreigners.
North Rhine-Westphalia indicated last year that it would begin publishing nationality data on suspects who have dual passports, as these suspects were previously only counted as Germans. However, those of foreign background and German citizenship are still not counted in the data, making it hard to discern their overall role in the German crime category.
Police counted 7,200 knife-related incidents in 2025, a reduction of 1.5 percent from the year before, according to official police statistics. The toll in human terms, however, barely changed: 49 people were killed in knife attacks compared to 48 in 2024, and 9,099 people were victims overall, of whom 2,928 sustained injuries.
Knife crime has been rising for years
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul of the CDU has for years stated that he would work to crack down on knife crime and violence, but so far, his record has seen the problem only grow for the most part under his tenure.
New data shows that foreigners are responsible for 43.9% of all crimes in Berlin in 2024.
Murders and manslaughter also jumped over 50% compared to 2023!
"What should not be ignored is that 30% of foreign suspects are not registered in Berlin," said a police union rep. pic.twitter.com/5r3nwUEzMz
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) March 20, 2025It is worth noting that Remix News was already covering the state’s knife crime crisis for years. In 2023, for instance, Reul said while responding to rising knife crime that “a knife is not a status symbol, but a weapon. And weapons don’t belong in your pocket.”
“An unprecedented, incomprehensible trail of blood runs through the country,” Reul said in 2023, speaking of “knife madness” and “rapidly increasing” knife attacks.
However, that year, he was only referring to 4,191 knife attacks per year in the state. Since then, the number of knife attacks has come close to doubling.
At the time, Marc Lürbke, then the spokesman for the domestic policy of the Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary group, pointed out the knife crime crisis.
“That’s 12 (knife attackers) per day,” he said. “The number is an indictment in itself.” He called no-weapon zones a “helpless attempt” to counter knife crime.
Lürbke called for a “prevention offensive” in schools “and yes, also in shelters for refugees.”
Violence falls slightly but murder and manslaughter rise
Across all categories, police recorded 159,000 violent crimes, a fall of 1.8 percent, including approximately 105,000 cases of simple assault. Murder and manslaughter accounted for 508 cases, 29 more than in 2024.
The picture for juvenile delinquency was mixed. The number of children recorded as suspects held steady at just over 21,000, while the figure for young people fell by nearly eight percent, from 44,000 to around 40,000. Cases involving at least one suspect under 21 also dropped by 7 percent. Typical offences in this category include shoplifting, assault, property damage, and insult.
Despite the improvement, Reul cautioned against complacency. “For the second year in a row, the numbers for child and youth crime are falling. That’s no reason to breathe a sigh of relief. We repeatedly see serious acts of violence by very young people.”
The national picture adds context. Germany-wide statistics for 2024 recorded 5,837,445 crimes, a fall of 1.7 percent, but violent crime rose 1.5 percent to 217,277 cases — the highest level since 2007. Most striking were the figures for younger offenders: violent crime among children increased by 11.3 percent and among young people by 3.8 percent. National figures for 2025 are expected in April.
Sexual offences against children continued to rise in North Rhine-Westphalia. More than 4,500 cases of child sexual abuse were registered in 2025, an increase of 2.7 percent, with a clearance rate of around 83 percent. Cases involving the distribution of child sexual abuse material rose nine percent to more than 9,800. Minister Reul attributed part of that increase to more intensive investigative activity.
