NCJ Number
224017
Date Published
2008
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This chapter presents crime data for 2006 in the Czech Republic based on police statistics.
Abstract
Czech police statistics show a negligible decrease in recorded crime compared with 2005, continuing the slight annual decrease in crime that began in 1999. This has been accompanied by slight annual declines in crime clearance rates. The highest number of crimes in the Czech Republic was recorded in 1999, when there were approximately 4,300 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2006, this figure declined to approximately 3,300 crimes, approximately 25-percent fewer. A significant proportion of recorded crime for 2006 was, as usual, committed in the capital city of Prague (approximately 25 percent of all crimes). As in previous years, the decline in recorded crime was due primarily to the decline in recorded property crimes, notably in thefts and burglaries in Prague and West Bohemia. Crime increases occurred in the traffic offenses of driving a motor vehicle without a license or driving a motor vehicle while drunk. The decline in recorded violent crime, which began in 2004, continued in 2006, occurring in the crimes of robbery, intentional bodily harm, blackmail, and trespassing on residential property. The exception was the crime of murder, which increased to 231 from the exceptionally low figure for 2005. The annual average for murders in the Czech Republic is 230. Due to the increase in the number of crimes with the highest clearance rates and the decline in recorded crimes with the lowest clearance rates, in 133,695 cases out of 336,446 the offender was known or found. Data are also provided on sentencing for 2006 and on offender characteristics (gender and age). 17 figures and 2 tables