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High numbers of theft in revised figures
statistikk
2005-05-12T10:00:00.000Z
Social conditions, welfare and crime;Svalbard
en
lovbrudda, Offences and victims reported to the police, crime, criminal cases, offence groups violence, drugs, crimes for profit, types of offence theft, murder, rapeSocial conditions, welfare and crime, Crime and justice, Social conditions, welfare and crime, Svalbard
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Offences and victims reported to the police, 2002

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High numbers of theft in revised figures

437 000 offences were reported to the police in 2002. This is an increase of 4.8 per cent from the previous year. There was an increase in crimes, but no change in misdemeanours, according to revised statistics on reported offences in 2002.

New statistics on offences reported to the police 1993-2002 from Statistics Norway

The statistics on offences reported to the police for the period 1993-2002 have been revised. This revision will be followed up for later years, and new statistics for 2003-2004 will be published by the end of second quarter of 2005.

More crimes for profit

Offence for profit is the largest group of offences and has a strong influence on the overall numbers of reported offences. Hence, decline in other subgroups are easily overshadowed by a rise in this group. The total number of offences for profit reported to the police rose by 9.3 per cent. Aggravated larceny increased by 12 per cent, and theft of motor vehicles increased by 20 per cent from the previous year.

Violence offences also increased in 2002, by 4.6 per cent from the previous year.

Decrease of narcotic offences for the first time

There were 45 000 reported narcotics offences in 2002. This is a decrease of 2.5 per cent from the previous year, and this is the first time there has been a decrease in narcotics offences in Norway. The decrease is particularly due to less reported offences for use of narcotics which dropped from 14 500 in 2001 to 13 400 in 2002, 8 per cent. Even though there has been a decline in the overall figures, serious narcotics crimes have risen by 12 per cent.

Offences reported to the police, by group of offence. 1993-2002. Number
  1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Total  327 466  332 771  377 478  385 446  402 252  415 472  407 277  424 918  417 166  437 250
Crimes  230 180  234 941  267 925  271 205  284 695  293 799  291 924  306 526  299 714  319 523
Misdemeanours 97 286 97 830  109 553  114 241  117 557  121 673  115 353  118 392  117 452  117 727
Group of offence                    
Economic offences 6 680 6 375 7 872 6 698 6 968 7 502 7 545 8 280 8 014 7 950
Other offences for profit  187 422  190 686  207 242  208 813  214 865  219 949  213 183  221 577  207 041  226 285
Offences of violence 16 096 16 865 18 076 19 299 19 288 19 839 20 371 23 572 24 180 25 289
Sexual offences 2 173 2 102 2 244 3 518 3 372 2 945 2 804 2 772 3 058 3 142
Offences of narcotics 12 714 13 550 21 435 25 009 31 217 35 144 37 426 40 730 46 251 45 092
Damage to property 16 208 17 084 24 258 24 665 27 592 30 470 30 171 28 828 25 396 22 809
Environment offences 3 355 3 686 3 867 3 711 3 866 3 813 3 607 3 383 3 454 2 900
Work environment offences  766  872 1 017  998 1 206 1 260  985  963  945  887
Traffic offences 49 750 47 226 53 945 52 805 55 657 57 370 54 268 56 391 57 202 59 339
Other offences 32 302 34 325 37 522 39 930 38 221 37 180 36 917 38 422 41 625 43 557
Background and method of revision, 1993-2002

The statistics are based on material from the police central register system STRASAK, which includes all offences registered by the police in the various police districts in Norway. The background for the revision is that some cases are transferred from one police district to another and thus the same offence is registered in both police districts. The revision is conducted by the use of information registered by the police themselves. When an offence has been registered several times, only the first registration is kept for statistical use.

The revision of the statistics involves the elimination of a considerable source of error. Some uncertainty is still tied to the accuracy of the revision, and the revision may have had a different impact for different years. After a thorough examination of different data and crime statistics, in addition to dialogue with Norwegian Police Data and Procurement Service (PDMT), Statistics Norway is of the opinion that the revision has entailed a considerable quality increase of the statistics on offences reported to the police (see About the statistics).

Number of offences reported to the police, revised and previously published. 1993-2002

The revision has had a greater impact on some types of offences than others. The extent of the revision also varies somewhat from year to year. The most comprehensive revisions were done for 1998, with the removal of more than 31 000 offences from the statistics. 24 500 offences are removed from the statistics for the year 2002. Compared with previously published statistics there has been a somewhat larger decrease - both in absolute numbers and as a percentage - for crimes than for summary offences (see figure). However, it is essentially a matter of a general reduction of the level. For instance, in 2002, the distribution by group of offence in the revised statistics contains an almost identical share of the total as in the previously published statistics.

Police reform in 2002

Since 1 January 2002 the former 54 police districts have been reduced to 27. The reform was followed by a technical re-adjustment in the registration system, STRASAK, which was completed during the last months of the year. Statistics Norway then had to change the routines for producing the statistics on reported offences to the police. These changes are not considered having substantial effect on the statistics. Nevertheless, the changes are of concern for the tables that are grouped by police district, and the information on offences committed abroad.