The crime rate in the Czech Republic rose slightly in the first half of this year, as the police began investigating approximately 89,000 criminal offences, around 700 more than last year, according to the statistics published on the police website on Wednesday.
The rise in sexual crimes continued, and the number of violent crimes also increased slightly. From January through the end of June, police recorded 71 murders, the same number as the previous year.
From the beginning of the year through to the end of June, police recorded around 2,320 sexual crimes, including rape, sexual coercion, sexual abuse and pimping.
Among these, rape cases were the most common (637), followed by the sexual exploitation of children for the production of pornography (612).
During the same period last year, police investigated roughly 1,980 sexual crimes or misdemeanors, already an increase from the previous year. For the entire year, the police recorded nearly 4,000 such offences, which was an 8.8% increase year-on-year.
According to an earlier statement by Deputy Police President Tomas Kubik, this was partly due to a change in the definition of rape and the introduction of the crime of sexual assault. He added that the increase was also influenced by the fact that people were reporting incidents more frequently thanks to greater trust in the police.
Violent crime also rose slightly. Last year, police investigated approximately 7,440 violent crimes in the first six months. This year, that number was 240 higher. Of the 71 murders, most of them were due to disputes in personal relationships, as last year.
Of the violent crimes solved so far, 281 offences were committed by children under 18, including five murders. Last year, police recorded 291 violent crimes in this category during the first half of the year, with seven murders.
Across the whole of 2025, Czech police recorded 170,051 crimes, which was 3,271 fewer than the previous year, a fall of 1.9%. Including cases from the past that were subsequently solved, criminal investigators solved nearly 56% of crimes and misdemeanors. The clearance rate has remained at this level for several years.
