Violent crime rises in the Netherlands while burglary keeps falling
Police registered 615,160 crimes in the first nine months of 2026, 1.6% more than a year earlier, with assault up 7.4% and murder and manslaughter cases up 18.7%.
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Illustrative photo: Joost J. Bakker / CC BY 2.0
The police registered 615,160 crimes between January and September 2026, up from 605,343 a year earlier. That is still 10.6% fewer than in the same months of 2016, when 688,396 were registered.
Several violent crimes rose. Registered assault grew to 34,451 cases from 32,077 (+7.4%). Registered murder and manslaughter cases, which include attempts, rose to 2,349 from 1,979 (+18.7%). These count crimes registered by the police, not victims.
Public violence against people, such as violence in public places, rose to 3,779 cases (+9.8%). Registered threats were almost flat at 19,873 against 19,799.
Property crime kept falling. Home burglary dropped to 14,534 cases (-1.3%), pickpocketing to 4,730 (-13.6%), car and motorbike theft to 6,108 (-6.2%) and street robbery to 2,062 (-6.6%).
Compared with January to September 2016, registered home burglary is down 62.9%, pickpocketing is down 74.6% and car and motorbike theft is down 39.6%. Public violence against people is up 33.1% on 2016, from 2,839 cases.
Source: Politie
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