Crime in Slovenia in 2018

The article presents data on crime dealt with by the Slovenian police in 2018, as well as changes and factors that influenced their work. The statistics cover only crimes known and reported or detected by the police. Priorities of the Slovenian police in the area of prevention, detection and investigation of crime were directed to the more serious forms of crime in 2018, in particular criminal offenses against the highest protected human rights and freedoms, criminal acts with great material damage, unlawful material gain, terrorism and cybercrime. In 2018, the police dealt with 56,507 criminal offenses, for which it filed a criminal complaint or report to supplement the criminal charges, which has been a trend at least over the last ten years. This continues the trend of declining criminal offenses that began in 2014. The proportion of crime investigated in 2018 was 48.1%, which is on a multi-annual average, the proportion of criminal offenses discovered by the police on their own was 12.8% and is also in the multi-annual average. The largest share is general crime, as much as 85.2% of all criminal offenses. Economic crime accounts for 14.8% of criminality, while organized crime accounts for 1%. Crimes committed by juvenile perpetrators represent a 2.3% share. In the recording of statistical data, certain methodological changes occurred in 2018 resulting in individual data not being the same as the data stated in the previous annual reports, which does not affect their comparability. The crime situation in 2018 was influenced by a number of factors, and among the most important is the increased number of migrations, which on the one hand results in police officers dealing with more administrative procedures, and on the other hand, the police are increasingly discovering large number of smugglers of migrants acting as communities. There is a growing influence on the state of crime as well as all the existing digitalization and rapid technological development, which with the possibility of anonymization of users, the international interconnection of communications and the large amount of digital data strongly influence the work of the police in the field of crime investigation, especially in the absence of appropriate authorizations. In 2018, the Slovenian police continued to develop criminal investigation activities with intensive training of staff in various fields, and a large amount of funds were also dedicated to the modernization of technical equipment. Recognizing the international dimension of criminality and the global causes that affect it, the police have invested heavily in international cooperation and strengthening relations with partner countries both in the region and beyond.