A German police union chief has sparked controversy after suggesting that women should avoid relationships with men because of rising crime rates in the country, while apparently ignoring that government statistics indicate a higher likelihood of being a victim of migrant crime.
Appearing on the ZDF public broadcaster this week, the head of the Federal Association of German Detectives (BDK), Dirk Peglow, had a novel take on the fact that crimes against women are on the rise in Germany.
When pressed by LGBT Assyrian-heritage ZDF host Dunja Hayali on what advice he would give women in Germany, Peglow said per DW: “Better not get into a relationship with a man.”
“If you do, the risk is much higher of becoming a victim of psychological or physical violence,” he said, adding that in 2024, “statistically at least two women per day were victims of homicide or attempted homicide, and things look the same with sexual offences.”
The comments, which were widely discussed across the German press, came in the wake of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) revealing this week that incidents of rape rose again last year by nine per cent over 2024.
The data went on to reveal that since 2018 — during one of the highest periods of immigration in the country’s history — cases of rape rose by a staggering 72 per cent.
The BKA revealed that foreign nationals accounted for 38.5 per cent of suspected rapists, despite only making up 15 per cent of the total population. However, the number of non-German victims of rape stood at 22.3 per cent, suggesting that foreign rapists preferred to target German women.
While violent crime overall fell by 2.3 per cent last year, the figures also showed a significant overrepresentation of migrants in violent crime cases, accounting for 42. 9 per cent of all suspects.
The true impact of migration on violent crime is likely much higher, however, given that the statistics do not count migrants who obtained German citizenship or second-generation migrants who were born in Germany to foreign parents.
Following pushback against his comments, BDK chief Peglow told Berlin’s Bild newspaper: “My statement was clearly expressed in an exaggerated manner. It was not meant as literal advice.”
He said that he did not want to create a “general suspicion against men” and added that “the overwhelming majority of men are not violent and not perpetrators.”
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