50,000 Suspects

The courts sentenced 2,472 German citizens – mostly men – in 2008 for sexual abuse, 2,144 for rape and 3,134 for the dissemination of pornographic material. The number of sentenced offenders can be compared with the approximately 50,000 who police criminal statistics show were suspected of having committed such offenses in 2009. The number is so high because, initially, anyone is regarded as a suspect who comes into the frame as a possible offender, accomplice, associate or instigator. The 2009 figure for the sexual abuse of children is 11,319 cases, the lowest figure since 1993 – a drop of around 6 percent. However, experts assume, as they have in the past, that there are con­siderably more cases of this type of offense than are reported.

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