Crime in Belgium is countered by the

Belgian Police Law enforcement in Belgium is conducted by an integrated police service structured on the federal and local levels, made up of the Federal Police and the Local Police. Both forces are autonomous and subordinate to different authorities, but link ...

and other agencies.

Crime by type

Murder

In 2012, Belgium had a murder rate of 1.8 per 100,000 population. There were a total of 182 murders in Belgium in 2012.''Global Study on Homicide''

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC; French: ''Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime'') is a United Nations office that was established in 1997 as the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention by combining the ...

, 2013.

Theft

Muggings, purse snatchings, and pocket picking occur frequently, particularly in major cities. Thieves often loiter in transportation hubs like the Metro (subway) and train stations to take advantage of disoriented or distracted travelers.

Corruption

Public trust in the civil service and the judiciary is high, and perception of corruption is low in Belgium.

Crime dynamics

Crime and racial tension

A study based on data from 1999 concluded that minors of non-European nationality were overrepresented in crime statistics. While 4.4% of the Belgian population has a non-European nationality, 19% of all prosecuted cases, and 24% of cases presented in youth court involved non-European nationals.

Terrorism and crime

Besides general safety issues in some boroughs, Brussels reportedly serves as a hub for terrorists, as reported by various sources such as

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...

, and local newspapers such as Het Nieuwsblad. In the same boroughs that pose safety problems (e.g.

Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (French, ) or ( Dutch, ), often simply called Molenbeek, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, from which it is separated ...

Schaerbeek (French and archaic Dutch, ) or (contemporary Dutch, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Etterbeek, Evere and S ...

, ...) there is radicalisation. This remains however very limited in scale, the occurrence of Belgian nationals directly linked to international terrorism hovering around 0.1-1 per million inhabitants for the last decade. The two Tunisian nationals who assassinated Commander Massoud in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

had fake

Belgian passport A Belgian passport is a travel document issued by Belgium to Belgian citizens to facilitate international travel. It grants the bearer international passage in accordance with visa requirements and serves as proof of citizenship. Types of pa ...

s, and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain, or GICM) has links in Belgium too - there were arrests in Brussels and Antwerp of individuals involved in the Madrid bombing. As a result, stringent measures were taken against passport and other official documents forging. Belgium has also seen hate crimes against visible minorities recently, including the Hans Van Themsche case, the Patrick Mombaerts case or other acts of racist violence.

Crime and politics

Much reported in newspapers were Mayor Moureaux of Molenbeeks's failed attempts at revitalizing the Brussels municipality. An example was the withdrawal of

BBDO BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency originated in 1891 with the George Batten Company, and in 1928, through a merger with Barton, Durstine & Osborn (BDO), the agency became Batten, B ...

in June 2011 from the town. In an open letter addressed to Moureaux, ten employees of this American advertising agency cited over 150 attacks on their staff by locals as principal reason for their departure. As a result, serious questions were raised about governance, security, and the administration of Mayor Moureaux. This played in a wider context of left-right wing political discord lining up with Belgium's Flemish-Walloons language conflict. The case became emblematic of perceived Walloon socialist plotting to let neighbourhoods degrade (by inviting immigrants and offering them social security) to create socialist-voting poor constituents. The Walloon side thought it showed how Flemish media, mostly controlled by openly nationalist families, push a right-wing and xenophobic agenda.

By location

Brussels

According to Urban Audit, in 2001,

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

had the fourth highest number of recorded crimes of European capitals (behind Stockholm,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, and virtually on a par with

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...

). According to the same source, Brussels had a rate of 10 murders or violent deaths per 100,000 citizens. Usually, serious safety issues in Brussels are mostly limited to residential boroughs with a low income population.

Other cities

Belgium's second largest city, Antwerp, saw crime rates about 20% below those of Brussels. Liège and Charleroi, industrial cities with high unemployment rates, saw more elevated crime rates than the less industrialized cities of

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

and

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the country by population. The area of the whole city a ...

. The rural areas are generally extremely safe.

References

Belgium USA Department of State.

Urban Audit: How cities rank
*

Het Laatste Nieuws. *

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

br>Belgian 'suicide bomber' is named.

Belgian Federal Police
(See versions for the most detailed statistics).

External links

urbanaudit.org

OSAC: Belgium 2013 Crime & Safety Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crime In Belgium