In one year: 111 gang rapes in Berlin – most of the victims are minors

The police registered 111 cases of rape by multiple perpetrators in Berlin last year. The number in the crime statistics was thus slightly higher than in previous years, when it fluctuated between 89 and 106.

This is the result of a response from the Senate to a request from the AfD. The “Bild” newspaper reported that most of the 111 victims were in the 14 and 15 year old age group (18 victims). There were also 10 victims aged 16 and 17 and 13 in the 18 to 20 year old group. Most of the crimes took place in apartments and apartment buildings (41), but also in parks (16).

Of the 106 suspected perpetrators identified, 25 were younger than 18 years old. 28 suspects were between 18 and 24 years old. The proportion of suspects with foreign nationality was 54 percent. Last year it was 65 percent, before that 44 and 51 percent respectively.

The police assume that there is a significant number of unreported cases of sexual crimes and rape, because many victims do not contact the police out of shame or fear of the perpetrator. The Senate writes about these crimes with several suspects: “These do not necessarily have to be ‘gang rapes’. Whether the crimes become known “obviously depends on the willingness of the victims to report them, and the specific course of events is often very individual.”

In Germany, cases of alleged gang rape repeatedly make headlines. A case from Hamburg in September 2020 caused particular outrage, in which a then 15-year-old girl was raped by several men in a park under the influence of alcohol within a short period of time. In one trial, nine men were sentenced to prison terms; some of them appealed. In Berlin, three men were recently charged with an alleged gang rape in Görlitzer Park. According to the prosecution, the men attacked a couple in June 2023 and raped the then 27-year-old woman. The trial initially collapsed because the woman did not appear in court.

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