AMSTERDAM — Five million people in the Netherlands were the victim of crime in 2002, an increase of 11 percent compared with the year before, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has said.

It was the first rise since 1999 and the CBS research, published on Friday, contradicted claims from the Justice and Interior ministries that crime has declined in recent years, an NOS news report said.

The CBS, which surveyed 10,000 people in its research, said Dutch citizens were primarily the victim of vandalism and theft, with both types of crime affecting an estimated 1,9 million people each, a rise of 16 and 12 percent respectively.

About 1 million people said they were the victim of a violent crime last year, a rise of 23,000 or about 2 percent on 2001, NOS reported. But police figures indicated an 8 percent rise in violent crime.

Not all crimes are reported to police, but the total number of offences that police did record in 2002 showed an almost 5 percent increase compared with 2001. There were 1.4 million crimes reported to police in 2002.

The CBS also said two-thirds of registered crime consisted of crimes against property, including theft and breaking and entry. It also said there has been a 16 percent increase in the total number of reported crimes between the years 1998-2002.

Police solved 254,000 crimes last year, 39,000 more than in 2001. The rate of solved crimes is 17.8 percent, compared with 15.9 percent in 2001, but almost 50 percent of violent crimes were solved. The rate is considerably less for vandalism and crimes against property.

[Copyright Expatica News 2003]

Subject: Dutch news