Girls are increasingly suspected of shoplifting. Never before has the proportion of girls been so high. The number of girls suspected of shoplifting will increase by 70 percent by 2022. The number of other crimes is also increasing.
This is evident from the Youth Crime Monitor, published on Monday, a report that the scientific bureau of the Ministry of Justice and Security, the WODC, publishes every few years in collaboration with Statistics Netherlands.
According to the monitor, in 2022, 1.4 percent of young people aged 12 to 18 were suspected of a crime. Between 2010 and 2021, the number of suspects halved. That decline seems to be coming to an end.
In 2022, the number of suspects in this age group will increase by 12 percent. More than one in ten suspects registered by the police is under 18 years old. Boys still form the majority, but the growth among girls was relatively strongest at 42 percent.
In 2022, 40 percent of all suspects between the ages of 12 and 18 lived in one of the 25 largest municipalities in the Netherlands – 31 percent of all young people in that age group.
Child suspects relatively often live in the big city, with Amsterdam at the forefront: 25 per 1,000 underage residents. Of the 25 largest municipalities, Breda and Apeldoorn had the lowest proportion of underage suspects (respectively 9 and 10 per 1000 underage residents).
The number of girls suspected of shoplifting will increase by 70 percent by 2022. Despite the increase, the group of suspicious boys is still slightly larger, according to the monitor.
By 2022, girls will make up nearly half of suspected shoplifters. Almost only boys were suspected of crimes such as domestic burglary and weapon crimes.
In 2022 there were a total of 6200 underage suspects of shoplifting. That is 2200 more than in 2021 and also more than in the past ten years.
According to the researchers, the sharp increase compared to 2021 is partly due to the closing of shops during the corona crisis.
The number of minors suspected of a weapon incident increased by 7 percent to 1200.
