Victims of offences reported to the police, 2004

3,9 per cent of Norwegian residents were victims of offences reported to the police in 2004. Young adults are in total most exposed, with slightly overrepresentation of men. Theft is clearly the most usual offence, but the police also registered 20 300 victims of violence and threats. Small children are considerably overrepresented among victims of sexual crimes, but to a very small extent registered as victims of other types of offences.

Half the offences against persons, and every sixth against enterprises

Offences reported to the police show that 181 000 persons were exposed to 198 000 offences. Of the 407 000 offences reported to the police, however, is less than half registered with a person as victim: 70 000 offences (17 per cent) are committed against an enterprise or other juridical units, and 139 000 offences (34 per cent) are without a registered victim. Narcotic- and traffic-crime are examples on offences which not necessarily have caused a direct experience of victimization, and more than 90 000 of offences without registered victim are found in these groups of offence. 62 per cent of all crimes reported to the police are registered with a person as victim, compared to only 15 per cent of all misdemeanours reported to the police. Victims are to a small extent registered as victim of more than one offence during a year: Nine out of ten are only registered as exposed to one offence, and very rarely the reports embodies many different types of encroachments against the same person.

Three out of four exposed to theft, and highest risk for inhabitants of Oslo

Looking at the most serious crime the individual victim is exposed to, 74 per cent is exposed to theft and other offences for profit - and for more than 10 per cent the principal offence is violence. Altogether 6,4 per cent of Oslo residents - compared to 3,9 per cent in the whole country - registered as victim of one or more offences in 2004. Most exposed is the age group 20-29 years, where almost one out of ten inhabitants of Oslo were registered as a victim of an offence in 2004. Every fifth victim of theft lives in Oslo, and based on a total more than 5 per cent of the capitals residents are yearly registered as exposed to at least one offence for profit.

In total, men are more exposed to crime for profit than women. During 2004 more than 80 000 men, and almost 54 000 women, were registered as victimized to at least one offence for profit. However, up to the age of 20 nearly the same number of women and men are registered as victims of offences for profit (see figure). Differences between gender are relatively large for the most serious thefts from households: Two thirds of all registered victims of aggravated larceny from dwellings - and 70 per cent of victims of automobile theft - are men. When a household with more than one person is exposed to theft or crime inflicting damage to property, it may be the man, more often than the woman, who gets in contact with the police. This may be one of the reasons why differences by gender are so large in reporting this type of offence to the police.

Most violence against young men

Out of reports to the police, the risk of being exposed to crime of violence is highest during the first year after obtained age of majority. This is the case for both men and women, but in the age group 18-24 years the risk of violence is more than twice as high for men than for women. From middle-twenties the exposure is reduced systematically with increasingly age for both sexes (see figure). More than half of all victims of violence and threats are under 30 years, and three out of four are under 40 years of age. The share of victims under 30 years is somewhat lower among women than among men (46 and 55 per cent, respectively).

It also seems like victims are somewhat older the more serious physical violence they are exposed to: From principal offence, 73 per cent of all victims of assaults, 80 per cent of assault wounding or inflicting bodily harm and 88 percent of assaults inflicting grievous bodily harm are over 20 years old. There is also a larger difference by gender in exposure to assault inflicting bodily harm (80 per cent men) than to the less serious assaults (61 per cent men) and threats (54 per cent men).

Highest risk of violence for Finnmark residents

From the victim's place of residence and the population, clearly there is a higher risk of being exposed to violence and threats in Finnmark Finnmárku than in other counties. So is the matter for both men and women, and particularly in the age group 10 - 40 years. Oslo residents stand out from the crowd as the second most exposed to offences of violence. The reports to the police shows, however, a considerable difference in the distribution of male and female victims of violence and threats in the different counties: 45 per cent of victims living in Østfold are women, whilst the corresponding share in Vest-Agder is 32 per cent. The extent of victims of violent crime in Oslo is also due to relatively many female victims, and according to population about the same share is reported to the police of violent crime committed against men living in Vest-Agder and Telemark - as against men living in Oslo (see figure).

Half of all the victims among small children are exposed to sexual offences

Children relatively seldom register as victims in criminal cases. This is partly due to children not being direct owners of things - and with that, seldom counts as victims of theft and crimes inflicting damage to property. Altogether, 1 200 children under 10 years of age was reported to the police as victims of one or more offences. Half of these are exposed to sexual crimes. On the contrary, violence and other types of encroachments against small children are not as often reported to the police: During 2004 the police registered only 217 victims of violence and threats in the age 0-9 years. In other words, the police get reports about almost three times more victims of sexual crime than of violent crimes amongst small children.

Children and youth are considerably over represented among all victims of sexual crimes: More than half of all new victims of sexual offences reported to the police, are children under the age of 16 years. Girls and women are also clearly in majority, and represents 87 per cent of all victims of sexual crimes.

Tables:

• Table 1 Offences reported to the police, by type of victim and group of offence. 2004. Absolute figures
• Table 2 Victims (persons) by number of offences, sex and age. 2004. Absolute figures and per cent
• Table 3 Victims (persons) by sex, age and place of residence (county). 2004. Absolute figures and per 1 000 population
• Table 4 Victims (persons) by group of principal offence, sex and age. 2004. Absolute figures and per 1 000 population
• Table 5 Victims (persons) by group of principal offence and one-year age group. 2004. Absolute figures
• Table 6 Victims (persons) by group of principal offence and one-year age group. 2004. Per 1 000 population
• Table 7 Victims (persons) by group of principal offence and place of residence (county). 2004. Numbers and per 1 000 population
• Table 8 Victims (persons) by sex, age and type of principal offence. 2004. Absolute figures
• Table 9 Victims (persons) of offences for profit, by sex and one-year age group. 2004. Absolute figures and per 1 000 population
• Table 10 Victims (persons) of other offences for profit, by sex, age and place of residence (county). 2004. Absolute figures and per 1 000 population
• Table 11 Victims (persons) of other offences for profit, by numbers of other offences for profit, sex and age. 2004. Absolute figures and per cent
• Table 12 Victims (persons) of offences of violence, by sex and one-year age group. 2004. Absolute figures and per 1 000 population
• Table 13 Victims (persons) of offences of violence, by sex, age and place of residence (county). 2004. Absolute figures and per 1 000 population
• Table 14 Victims (persons) of offences of violence, by numbers of offences of violence, sex and age. 2004. Absolute figures and per cent