Juvenile suspects

Juvenile Suspects

For the trends and developments in the number of juveniles suspected of involvement in offending, we use registered data on suspects derived from the Basic Enforcement Provision (BVH) police database. The decline in the relative number of juvenile suspects that began in 2010 has continued in the period from 2015 to 2023. The decrease in the proportion of juvenile suspects since 2010 seems to have stabilized somewhat in the most recent years, up to and including 2022. In 2022, there were 14 suspects per 1,000 juveniles and 20 per 1,000 adolescents.

Latest update: September 2023

Number of Juvenile Suspects per 1,000 Peers

Number of Juvenile Suspects per 1,000 Peers
	12- to 16-year-olds	16- to 18-year-olds	12- to 18-year-olds	18- to 23-year-olds
2010	23	47,3	31,2	44,4
2011	20,8	43,3	28,3	42,5
2012	18,2	38,5	24,8	38,6
2013	15,4	32,1	20,9	34,1
2014	14,3	29,3	19,2	30,9
2015	13,4	28	18,3	27,3
2016	12,6	25,4	16,9	24,8
2017	11,4	23,1	15,4	22,6
2018	9,6	21,5	13,7	21,2
2019	11,1	23,6	15,5	21,9
2020	9,8	20,3	13,5	21,4
2021	10,1	18,6	13	19,8
2022	11,6	20	14,4	20,5

Note: 2019 and 2020 involve preliminary statistics.

Source table as .csv (413 bytes)

Trends in Juvenile Suspects based on Various Background Characteristics

For trends in the number of registered juvenile suspects in the years 2018 to 2023, we also looked at various individual characteristics, including migration background, school dropout rate, and municipality of residence.

In 2022, 56% of minor suspects (aged 12-18) have a Dutch background. Among adolescent suspects (aged 18-23), this is 54%. In some population groups, the decrease in the number of suspects from 2018 to 2023 is stronger than in other groups. For example, the number of suspects with a Moroccan migration background decreased the most, both among minors and adolescents.

School dropouts are defined as young people up to 18 years old, who have dropped out of secondary education or vocational education early, without a starting qualification (i.e., a higher secondary education or vocational education diploma, at least at level 2).

The number of suspects among adolescent school dropouts decreased by 26% in the period from 2015 to 2023. However, in 2022, adolescent school dropouts were almost five times more likely to appear in the police's suspect registration database than non-school dropouts, respectively 85 and 18 per 1,000 adolescents.

Among minor school dropouts, the number of suspects fluctuates significantly during these years. However, even in this group, in 2021 the relative number of suspects was much higher among school dropouts (70 per 1,000 juveniles) than among non-school dropouts (12 per 1,000).

In 2022, respectively 19% and 20% of all minor and adolescent suspects lived in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, or Utrecht. Thus, juvenile suspects are overrepresented in the four major municipalities (G4). For comparison: in 2022, 12% of all juveniles and 15% of all adolescents in the Netherlands lived in the G4.
On average, the number of minor suspects in the G4 decreased by 4% in the period from 2018 to 2023, while there was an increase for the whole of the Netherlands (+4%). The number of adolescent suspects in the G4 decreased by 7%, which is a stronger decrease than in other parts of the Netherlands (3%).

Trends fluctuate when divided into different types of offenses

Among minor suspects, property crimes are most common, especially shoplifting. In 2022, these increased compared to the two previous years, returning to the same level as in 2018. The number of minor suspects for weapon and drug offenses more or less remained constant from 2018 to 2022. The slight increase in 2019 may be due to a different method of incident registration by the police. Among adolescent suspects, 2022 statistics portray an increase in traffic offenses, while property, violent, and drug offenses show a slight decrease, and the proportion of suspects for other offenses remains nearly stable.

More Nuanced Picture of Juvenile Crime Trends and Developments

Police statistics on juvenile suspects only provide a partial image of actual juvenile crime. After all, the police do not detect all offenses. A more nuanced picture of trends and developments in juvenile crime based on a variety of sources is provided in the full Juvenile Crime Monitor.