It is used to monitor regional and supra-regional crime and individual types of offense, the extent and composition of the group of suspects as well as changes in crime quotients (ratios used for the comparative assessment of crime). Furthermore, it provides a basis for gaining knowledge for preventive and prosecutorial crime prevention, for organizational planning and decisions as well as for criminological-sociological research and crime policy measures. It is therefore an important tool in the performance of various police and criminal investigation tasks.
The PCS is a so-called baseline statistic. This means that the PKS only shows the criminal offenses known to the police and processed by them, including attempts punishable by law, and that statistics are only recorded when they are handed over to the public prosecutor's office (StA) or the court. It also provides information on the number of suspects identified and a range of other details on cases or victims. Cases of politically motivated crime, traffic offenses and administrative offenses are not included.
The informative value of the police crime statistics is, however, limited by various influencing factors. For example, only the so-called bright field (crime known to the police) is recorded in the PKS. Due to a lack of statistical data, the so-called dark field - i.e. crime that has not come to the attention of the police - cannot be depicted in the PKS. The extent of this dark field depends on the type of offense and changes over time under the influence of variable factors (e.g. the willingness of the population to report crimes or the intensity of the fight against crime).
It is therefore not possible to assume a fixed relationship between crimes committed and crimes recorded statistically. In addition, the comparability of police crime statistics in certain offense areas can be significantly impaired by changes in the law. Taking these influencing factors into account, the PCS is an important instrument in the performance of police work.
Data collection at federal level
The police crime statistics are compiled at state level by the 16 state criminal investigation offices, the statistics for the Federal Republic of Germany by the Federal Criminal Police Office on the basis of the state data provided by the 16 state criminal investigation offices.
The information provided is presented and commented on in tabular and graphical form and is published in book form once a year in the second half of the year. Most copies are made available to police and judicial authorities, but also to universities, for example.
The NRW police crime statistics for the current year can be found below under "Further information" and for previous years in the "Relevant documents" section of this article.
