More Murder and Robbery Convictions in Austria 2024
The trend of recent years continued: In the long term, the number of convictions is decreasing, with a low point in the pandemic year 2020. The largest group of offenses was again criminal acts against others' property. The number of convicted (attempted) murders increased by 21.1 percent compared to 2023.
"Starting from the low point in the Corona year 2020, court convictions in Austria have slightly increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2024," said the Director General of Statistics Austria, Thomas Burg. "Despite the renewed increase, the number of convictions and convicted persons was still below the level of 2019." The number of offenses increased by a total of 3.6 percent, with an average of 1.66 offenses per conviction, compared to 1.63 in 2023. The number of convicted persons also increased by 1.6 percent, reaching 25,445 in 2024. This means there were an average of 1.09 convictions per person.
Largest Group of Offenses: Acts Against Others' Property
The largest group of offenses remains unchanged compared to previous years. Almost a third (32 percent) were offenses against others' property, followed by offenses against life and limb (18.5 percent) and drug offenses (13.5 percent). Some criminal acts saw stronger increases compared to 2023. For instance, (attempted) murder rose by 21.1 percent and (aggravated) robbery by 23.8 percent. There were significant decreases in convictions under the Aliens Police Act (minus 34.2 percent; mostly smuggling) and in breaches of official duty or corruption (minus 31.1 percent).
Number of Convicted Juveniles Stable
Among the persons convicted in 2024, the majority (84.5 percent) were male and over 20 years old at the time of the offense (85.6 percent). 8.4 percent were between 18 and 20 years old (young adults) and 6.1 percent were between 14 and 17 years old (juveniles). The proportion of juveniles increased slightly compared to the previous year (2023: 5.5 percent). Looking at this proportion since 2012, the start of the time series, it has remained remarkably stable at around six percent (initial value 2012: 6.6 percent). In contrast, there was a slow, continuous decline in the proportion of young adults: it fell from 13.1 percent in 2012 to 8.4 percent in 2024. Complementarily, the proportion of adults (21 and older) increased slightly from 80.3 percent to 85.6 percent over the same period.
More Repeat Convictions
The repeat conviction rate increased in 2024 compared to 2023 for the first time since 2018, by 0.9 percentage points to 30.9 percent. This means that nearly one in three convicted persons observed since 2020 was found guilty again at least once in the following four years. The fact that the number of convictions has steadily increased slightly since the pandemic-related low in 2020 is now also reflected for the first time in the repeat conviction statistics.
The repeat conviction statistics are currently examining exactly the 2020 cohort (observation period 2020 to 2024), it was stated. The pandemic year is also evident in the significantly smaller size of the 2020 to 2024 cohort: with 22,598 persons, it is almost twelve percent or around 3,000 persons smaller than the group observed from 2019 to 2023.
(APA/Red)
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