The extensive research project deals with cases of sexual violence against women by men who had no or only a fleeting previous relationship at the time of the offense. The focus was on cases of sexual assault, sexual coercion and rape in accordance with Section 177 of the German Criminal Code.
The project was launched in 2018 and also involves the North Rhine-Westphalia University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration (HSPV NRW) and Münster University of Applied Sciences (FH Münster).
Different data sets and research methods were used as part of the project:
- Special analysis of police crime statistics - 13,903 crimes recorded in criminal statistics in North Rhine-Westphalia from 2008-2019
- Analysis of 1,232 investigation files from the public prosecutor's office with a comprehensive list of questions
- Qualitative interviews with five victims as well as five victim advocates and relatives from women's counseling centers
- qualitative interviews with 18 police case officers
- Qualitative interviews with six experts from the fields of psychology, forensic psychiatry and operational case analysis
- Two group discussions with eight experts each from the fields of victim protection and criminal investigation proceedings
The project provides findings on the following topics:
- Crime situation and development
- Phenomenology
- Victim characteristics, victim protection, victim needs in investigation and criminal proceedings and victim-related crime prevention
- Offender characteristics, offender behavior and offender-related crime prevention
- Police case processing
First results reports from the project are already available:
- Project Sexual Violence methodology report
- Project Sexual Violence Crime Situation and Development
- Project Sexual Violence Police Processing
- Project Sexual Violence Police Processing Part 2
- Project Sexual Violence Victims Part 1
- Project Sexual Violence Phenomenology
- Project Sexual Violence Brochure Crime Situation and Development/Phenomenology
In 2005, the KKF conducted research on sexually violent crime in North Rhine-Westphalia. Results from this project can be found in the following report:
The research project deals with youth violence in schools. The project is scheduled to run for three years and is based on an analysis of police bright field data (PKS, IGVP and ViVA) from the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the period 2010-2019, literature studies and supplementary qualitative interviews with stakeholders from schools, the police and academia, among others, on the causes and prevention options for youth violence at schools. One sub-project involves cooperation with the Institute of Sociology and Social Psychology at the University of Cologne, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Clemens Kroneberg. A DFG-funded research project on "Youth delinquency in urban school and residential contexts" is being carried out there in parallel. This cooperation makes it possible to include dark field data on youth violence collected to high scientific standards in addition to bright field data.
The project has the following research objectives and questionsThe overarching aim of the project is to optimize police investigations and search measures, police hazard prevention and, in particular, crime prevention and victim protection. Specifically, the following goals are being pursued:
Objective 1:
The crime situation and development of the phenomenon of violence at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia is described.
Research questions:
- How widespread is violence at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia?
- In what form does violence occur at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia?
- How has the phenomenon of violence at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia developed over the past ten years?
- What characterizes the perpetrators and victims of violence at schools?
Objective 2:
Causes of violence at schools in North Rhine-Westphalia are identified.
Research questions:
- How can violence in schools be explained?
- What significance does the school context have for youth violence compared to other contexts (here: residential environment)?
The Criminalistic-Criminological Research Center (KKF) of the LKA NRW is working on a project to research crime committed by extended families of Arab origin ("clan crime"). The project is concerned with the "stocktaking and analysis of national and international prevention approaches". It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
The KKF also examines prevention approaches from similar areas of phenomena or extremism research. It is being examined whether these approaches can be transferred to the area of "clan crime".
The approaches are collected and evaluated in several stages in the form of:
- Interviews with experts
- workshops with experts from practice and research and
- a subsequent analysis of the success potential of selected approaches
. Finally, recommendations for action and prevention strategies for practice will be developed from the insights gained.
Poster on the research project
In addition, as part of the scientific monitoring of the project "Orientation, Integration, Perspectives - 360° Measures to Prevent Clan Crime" of the Ministry of the Interior of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the KKF hosted an online symposium on the prevention of "clan crime" on December 2, 2020, under the patronage of Minister Herbert Reul.
Different strategies for the prevention of clan crime were discussed at the interdisciplinary conference. Workshops were held in video conference format. Participants also had the opportunity to contribute questions to a panel discussion and address them to speakers, as well as visit the "Market of Opportunities", a virtual exhibition space of prevention providers.
The course of the event, the content of the presentations and discussions and the results of the workshops can be found in the attached event report.
The Knowledge Exchange aims to transfer scientific theories and findings into police practice.
Islamist-motivated international terrorism is a threat to the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia and the entire Federal Republic of Germany. Islamist extremism has therefore recently received increased attention in various contexts - for example in media reporting, politics and academic research. The topic is also highly relevant in various areas and tasks of the LKA NRW and the North Rhine-Westphalian district police authorities - for example in state security, in the area of cybercrime or in prevention.
Scientific findings enrich the work in these police fields. They form the basis for qualified police training and further training and help to optimize police investigations and search measures, police hazard prevention, crime prevention and victim protection. In addition, research findings can be included in the evaluation, analysis and presentation of the police situation.
For this reason, the LKA NRW has launched the "Knowledge Exchange" on the topic of religiously motivated extremism with a focus on Islamist extremism. It is intended to make scientific findings usable for police practice and thus support police work.
The Criminalistic-Criminological Research Center of the North Rhine-Westphalia Criminal Police Office has been working intensively on the phenomenon of domestic burglary in the context of research and analysis projects. As part of a hypothesis-testing structural analysis, it first examined data from the police crime statistics. Based on data from the NRW Crime Monitor, it published a report in 2015 with dark field findings on the phenomenon. From 2014 to 2017, the KKF also carried out the most extensive research project in Europe on the topic of domestic burglary.
Research project on domestic burglary
Crime monitor NRW - domestic burglary
Residential burglary - structural analysis part 1
In 2015, the KKF published comprehensive research findings on the killing of newborn babies (neonaticide).
Article page:
For this purpose, the KKF analyzed nationwide investigation files with special consideration of police investigation approaches.
As part of the project, it investigated confirmed cases of neonaticide and criminally analyzed all infant finds recorded in the data material. In addition, the employees presented aspects of operational case analysis in the context of neonaticides as part of a special evaluation. The analyses open up the possibility of basing decisions about investigative measures on empirical results rather than on mere assumptions or even myths about the phenomenon of neonaticide. For example, the results can provide indications of possible anchor points or characteristics of the child's mothers.
The aim of the project is to analyze influencing factors and characteristics of conflict dynamics ranging from serious relationship violence to homicide in order to
to derive recommendations for action for police risk analysis and risk management from these findings.
A summary and manual for police practice
Young multiple and intensive offenders (jMIT) are regarded as a group of people who represent a particular challenge in terms of crime policy. The aim of this study was the comparative evaluation of the different concepts of several district police authorities (KPB) in North Rhine-Westphalia for dealing with jMIT. For this purpose, the KKF selected four district police authorities (KPB Bochum, KPB Mönchengladbach, KPB Warendorf and KPB Wuppertal). The selection was made taking into account various aspects such as the structure of the police districts/authorities, the number of multiple suspects (MTVBZ) and specific conceptual features. The research method is roughly divided into a process evaluation and an impact evaluation. The process evaluation focuses on the practical implementation of the concepts. The impact evaluation primarily serves to analyze the effectiveness of this practical implementation.
The clearance rates for all offenses and for individual offenses vary greatly depending on the federal state. The differences in the clearance rates for all offenses between the federal states are almost entirely due to differences in the structure of offenses between the federal states. Depending on the proportion of offenses in the total number of cases, which are generally easier to investigate, the clearance rate for all offenses varies.
The offense-specific differences in the clearance rates between the countries can be explained to a large extent by the different number of cases: This correlation is in turn likely to be due to forms of crime that are generally more difficult to detect, e.g. offenders operating internationally or working professionally.
On the other hand, there is no overall indication that clear-up rates influence the number of cases, as they have a deterrent effect, for example.
The age and height information provided by witnesses is of great importance for police investigations and searches. First and foremost, they should help to narrow down the circle of suspects; they are even indispensable for search measures in the immediate aftermath of a crime.
On the one hand, age and height details carry particular weight in the context of witness interviews, as they are (supposedly) hard facts. On the other hand, by their very nature, these details are always estimates that may be more or less accurate.
Similar to serial murders, spree killings are extremely rare, but in individual cases sometimes very spectacular criminal events with many victims. Due to the lack of binding definition criteria, it is difficult to provide reliable figures on the frequency or prevalence of spree killings.
In principle, homicides can occur in a variety of places and contexts. It is assumed that the crime scenes are often more or less directly related to a grievance or similar (see Weilbach, 2007). The currently discussed school shootings are a relatively new phenomenon. Robertz (2004) reports a total of 75 cases worldwide for the period from the first documented incident in 1974 in Olean in the US state of New York to the end of 2002, with 62 taking place in the USA, four in Germany, four in Canada and five in other countries.
Combating juvenile and violent crime is a particular focus of the North Rhine-Westphalia police's work. Since 2001, reducing the number of suspected multiple offenders under the age of 21 has been a key objective of police work. In this context, young multiple offense suspects are increasingly the target of preventive and repressive measures.
Against this background, this special evaluation of the North Rhine-Westphalia police crime statistics provides an overview of the scope, structure and development of the group of young multiple offense suspects.
Juvenile female offenders have received particular media attention in recent years. The headlines report more and more crime committed by girls, especially girls who are violent. In contrast to boys who fight, girls who fight are apparently particularly indignant; one press outlet asks accordingly: "What has become of the good sex?". A few years ago, such reports of worrying developments among young people led to calls for (criminal) policy makers to take swift action, e.g. in the form of tougher juvenile criminal law. Criminological research, however, initially devoted itself to a precise analysis of the phenomenon and came to results that largely relativized the extent of the (supposed) problem of "juvenile delinquency".
Final report evaluation of the PKS - violence against girls
Excerpt from the results of the investigation
The aim of this study was to deepen our knowledge of the phenomenon of robberies of financial institutions by perpetrators acting alone in order to derive starting points from this improved understanding for the optimization of police investigation and manhunt work.
To this end, the data on the offenders was first analyzed and compared with general population data in terms of physical characteristics and family circumstances. This showed very clearly that the bank robbers did not differ from the general population in terms of their physical characteristics.
Final report - Robberies at financial institutions
This analysis examines the question of whether and to what extent demographic change is influencing the incidence of crime and thus the tasks of the police. To this end, the KKF examined the demographic and crime trends. The aim was to identify parallel or similar trends from which indications of future crime and the need for police action can be derived, taking into account the projection of population trends up to 2020. The focus of the study is the comparison of the population data with the victim and suspect data reported in the PKS for the period 1994 to 2003 for the population group aged 60 and over.
Final report on senior citizens and crime
One of the central questions to be addressed is the extent to which the documented developments in the bright field are a reflection of developments in the dark field. It is of fundamental importance for crime control whether changes in the bright field are due to changes in the actual crime situation or to an increased illumination of the dark field. In a first step, time series of offense-specific frequency figures and numbers of suspects from the NRW police crime statistics and conviction rates from the criminal prosecution statistics for the years 1985 to 2003 are presented. By comparing these two sets of data, initial indications can be obtained for answering the aforementioned question.
Final report on crime trends in NRW