NCJ Number
154035
Date Published
1993
Length
154 pages
Annotation
This collection of statistics presents information on all crimes in the Czech Republic and some fundamental crime data from the Slovak Republic.
Abstract
The data are derived from police, prosecutor, justice, and prison surveys published in the Czech or Slovak Republics. The steep increase in the number of crimes that started in 1990 has not ceased. In fact, compared to 1989, the number of crimes in 1992 has almost tripled. At the same time, the proportion of cleared cases is steadily declining (31 percent in 1992). The highest increase and lowest clearance rates are found with property offenses, predominantly thefts and burglary. Drug traffic, organized crime, and prostitution, which previously only existed abroad, now occur more frequently in the two republics; the homicide rate is also rising. Criminologists and police officers agree that the rise of unreported crime is at least as steep as that of reported cases. Thus, the resolution of the crime problem is a significant part of the social reforms presently occurring in the Czech and Slovak Republics. It is expected that the crime rate will stabilize as the entire society recovers from the recent political changes.