The data include not only murders which have been committed, but also those which have been attempted or planned. Photo credit: Freepik.
Prague, Nov 1 (CTK) – In the first three quarters of this year, 122 murders were registered in the Czech Republic, 17 more than in the whole of 2021 (105 murders). 85 murders had been recorded from January to September 2021, according to police statistics.
The data include not only murders which have been committed, but also those which have been attempted or planned.
However, the rise in murder cases cannot be easily attributed to one particular social phenomenon, as most murderers are still motivated by personal conflicts, said police headquarters spokesman Jakub Vincalek.
“We really are registering a rise. However, murders must be assessed case by case,” Vincalek told CTK today, adding that most victims know the murderer.
In the first nine months of 2022, 66 murders were motivated by personal conflict. Besides these, the police registered three contract murders, two murders with robbery and one sexually motivated. The approximately 50 remaining murders had motives that did not fit into any of these categories.
Only experts can say whether there is a long-term trend behind the rising number of murders, as they have the verdicts in particular cases at their disposal, Vincalek added.
However, in the context of the Czech population of 10.5 million, 122 murders are not a “characteristic sample” to draw categorical conclusions, said Vincalek. “It would be misleading to relate this to the entire society,” he added.
This year, the highest number of murders were committed in the Usti Region (16), followed by Central Bohemia (15), Prague (14) and the Moravia-Silesia Region (13). The statistics also show that out of the 122 murders, 14 were committed by foreign nationals and 28 by re-offenders.
The highest number of murders occurred in September, when the police had to solve 20 cases, followed by April with 19. On the contrary, the lowest number of murders came in February (7), while January, May, June, July and August each saw 12.
Of the 122 murders registered this year, the police have solved 104 (85.3%), a similar rate seen at the end of September last year.
It is already apparent that the number of murders will rise further, as several murders were registered in Czech Republic in October.
