Crime in Norway

Murder

In 2011, Norway had a murder rate of 2.2 per 100,000 population. There were a total of 111 murders in Norway in 2011. Note that this figure includes the 2011 Norway attacks, which accounted for over half the homicides in the country that year.

Domestic violence

According to Norwegian police statistics, 5,284 cases of domestic violence were reported in 2008. These cases ranged from serious acts of violence such as murder and attempted murder to physical assault. The number of reported cases of domestic violence increased by 500 percent from 2005 to 2011.

Oslo

Statistics from the late 2000s indicate that crime in Oslo is rising. Some media have reported that there are four times as many thefts and robberies in Oslo than in New York City. Since 2012, the German travel guide Dumont now describes the city as being unsafe for female tourists. The guide also named Oslo "The Crime capital of Scandinavia".

According to the Oslo Police, they receive more than 15,000 reports of petty thefts annually. The rate is more than seven times the number per-capita of Berlin. Approximately 0.8% of those cases get solved. In the first 6 months of 2014, the number of petty thefts has declined by approximately 30%.

Oslo has witnessed annual spikes in sexual assault cases in recent years.

Crime dynamics

A large proportion of the crime that is carried out in Norway is committed by criminals from overseas. 34 percent of the Norwegian prison population are foreigners. In his autobiography Undesirables, British criminal Colin Blaney has claimed that gangs of English thieves target the nation on account of the perception that its prisons are relatively comfortable compared to those of other countries. Studies also indicate that this is one of the reasons that criminals from other parts of the world commit crime in Norway.