Practically half of all crime suspects in Austria final 12 months had been international nationals, although they characterize simply 20% of the inhabitants, in line with the 2024 legal police report. This stark disparity has reignited fierce political debate over migration and its broader affect on Austrian society.
Out of 335,911 suspects investigated for legal offenses, 46.8% had been non-Austrian, with the most important contingents hailing from Romania, Germany, and Syria, the Austrian press reported. Notably, crimes involving Syrian nationals surged by practically 30% in comparison with 2023, with minors accounting for a disproportionate share of that enhance.
It’s value noting that crime information on German suspects may be deceptive, as naturalized immigrants are categorized as German in official information. The identical applies in Austria, the place naturalized foreigners aren’t counted as “international,” suggesting the true proportion of foreign-born suspects seemingly exceeds the reported 47 %.
Inside Minister Gerhard Karner of the ruling Austrian Folks’s Social gathering introduced the info on Monday, noting the broader context: 534,193 legal circumstances had been reported nationwide in 2024, a 1.2% rise from the earlier 12 months. The police managed a 52.9% clearance charge—the third-best in a decade—however the rising function of international suspects has forged an extended shadow over the figures.
The information spotlight an unsettling pattern: not solely are practically half of all suspects foreign-born, however youth crime can also be exploding. Offenses dedicated by youngsters aged 10 to 14 practically doubled, reaching 12,049 circumstances final 12 months, with 48% of suspects in that age bracket being non-Austrian. Syrian minors alone had been concerned in practically 1,000 circumstances, up tenfold since 2020.
Teen offenders aged 14 to 18 weren’t far behind, contributing to a complete of 34,806 reported crimes. Many had been tied to burglaries, vandalism, and break-ins concentrating on automobiles and merchandising machines—against the law wave more and more pushed by underage perpetrators.
A few of these minors, officers say, are “system crashers”—repeat offenders answerable for dozens of incidents every month. Simply three people of this sort had been linked to greater than 3,000 offenses, with one racking up over 1,200 complaints alone.
Confronted with these alarming traits, and beneath stress to take a tough-on-crime strategy with the right-wing Freedom Social gathering main within the polls, Karner renewed his name to decrease the age of legal duty—a transfer not but adopted by the federal government however gaining momentum.
Austria, OGM ballot:
FPÖ-PfE: 32% (-2)
ÖVP-EPP: 23% (+4)
SPÖ-S&D: 21%
NEOS-RE: 11% (-2)
GRÜNE-G/EFA: 9% (-1)
KPÖ-LEFT: 2%+/- vs. 17-18 February 2025
Fieldwork: 04-09 April 2025
Pattern measurement: 1,042➤ https://t.co/XWpToewZ7C pic.twitter.com/oZDBtSPKnT
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) April 15, 2025
As an interim step, the inside minister has proposed increasing detention amenities for persistent youth offenders. The NEOS celebration, usually extra liberal on points associated to legal justice, even backed the idea, advocating for a steadiness of detention, rehabilitation, and training.
“If 12-year-olds are repeatedly injuring others or themselves, we will’t simply stand by,” stated Bettina Emmerling (NEOS), who serves as international minister and Vienna’s deputy mayor.
Karner additionally needs harsher penalties for truancy. He’s proposing to boost the present €400 parental positive to €2,000 in circumstances of repeated college absences.
Property-related offenses rose by 2%, whilst residential burglaries declined. The spike got here from a 25% soar in break-ins concentrating on autos and merchandising machines—a pattern police instantly tie to immigrant youth gangs.
In the meantime, cybercrime, although nonetheless widespread, confirmed a 5% decline—the primary drop in 20 years. Federal Felony Police Workplace Director Andreas Holzer credited higher public consciousness however urged larger funding in digital forensics and expanded powers for monitoring encrypted communication.
The report’s findings, as one may anticipate, have intensified requires stricter immigration controls. Vienna’s Freedom Social gathering (FPÖ) chief Dominik Nepp demanded that the age of legal duty be lowered to 12 and blamed lax border insurance policies for Austria’s crime issues.
Vienna’s Austrian Folks’s Social gathering (ÖVP) chair Karl Mahrer echoed the sentiment, criticizing the town’s welfare packages and migration insurance policies as “magnets for criminality.”
Considerably, officers acknowledged that the true proportion of foreign-born suspects could also be far greater. Naturalized immigrants are counted as Austrian residents in crime statistics—an element that skews the numbers and certain underestimates the size of international involvement.
Amid rising public security considerations, Austria now faces urgent questions: tips on how to handle the surge in youth crime, reform its legal justice system, and grapple with the long-term penalties of a long time of pro-mass migration insurance policies
Karner, a number one member of the ÖVP—the very celebration that helped form the pro-mass migration insurance policies contributing to Austria’s present challenges—is now insisting that the established order can not be maintained.
