A study carried out using data gathered by the police in the German region of Schleswig-Holstein has claimed that non-Germans are twice as likely to be suspects in crimes.
The study, conducted by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN), looked at crime statistics from 2013 to 2016 and found that German citizens were underrepresented in crime in relation to their share of the population, broadcaster Norddeutsche Rundfunk reports.
The criminologists noted that during the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, a large number of the migrants flooding into the country were young men who are more prone to criminality than women or other age groups.
“Young men become more likely to be criminal at all times and in all cultures studied so far – that is a very well-established criminological finding,” Professor Thomas Bliesener said.
Another factor leading to the difference in crime rates between migrants and Germans, according to the study, was the fact that many migrants came from far less educated backgrounds.
During the period from 2013 to 2016, the researchers discovered that theft had gone up considerably in the region and sex crimes had also increased. A majority of the victims of the crimes committed by migrants tended to come from migrant backgrounds, as well.
Reactions to the study from politicians were varied, with the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany politician Claus Schaffer saying the study proved existing thinking on migrant crime. Left-wing Green Party politician Burkhard Peters argued that the situation could be solved through better access to education.
Migrant crime rates have been a major issue since the migrant crisis in 2015. In many cities and regions across the country, migrants are over-represented in crime statistics: in Munich, they account for half of the suspects and in the region of Bavaria as a whole, migrant sex attacks increased by 91 per cent in 2017.
Earlier this year in Lower Saxony, criminologists ran a similar study of migrant crime and found a direct link between mass migration and increased rates of violent crime in the region.