More crimes are solved

Norwegian police solved 26 per cent of all offences fully investigated in 1996. This is up from 24 per cent in 1995 and is the highest clear-up rate in the 1990s. At the same time the clear-up rate for sex crimes dropped from 49 to 37 per cent.

The police finished investigating a total of 379,000 offences in 1996. Of these, 275,400 were crimes and 103,600 were misdemeanours. These are the highest figures recorded for fully investigated crimes in one year. At the same time the percentage of solved crimes increased from 24 per cent in 1995 to 26 per cent in 1996. This is just as high as in 1994, and we have to go back to 1977 to find a higher clear-up rate. Misdemeanours were solved just as often in 1996 as in 1995, i.e. in 74 per cent of the cases.

New Statistics

Offences investigated by the police, 1996. Preliminary figures.
Statistics are published every year in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics and in the Official Statistics of Norway (NOS) Criminal Statistics. Statistics are based on the central police registration system, STRASAK. More information: Frantz Gundersen, tel. +47 21 09 45 43, e-mail: fgu@ssb.no.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 41, 1997