Lockdown led to rise in domestic violence cases, police say
Officers in Luxembourg were called to 943 cases last year, an increase of 11%, as people were forced to stay at home due to the pandemic
In 2020, police were tasked to deal with an increasing number of domestic violence reports, up by 11% from the previous year © Photo credit: AFP
The Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown led to an increase in domestic violence in Luxembourg last year, the country's police force said in its annual report on Thursday.
During 2020, police were called to 943 reports of domestic violence, a rise of 11% from the previous year.
The public health crisis did lead to a reduction in other types of crime, with burglaries of residential properties decreasing by 23%, a phenomenon unsurprisingly linked to the lockdown, curfew and people increasingly working from home, according to the report. The police report indicates that this drop is due in particular to the absence of "foreign, professional criminal gangs" arriving in the country following the closure of borders. However, the activities of "local criminals... considerably increased" in the same period, police said.
Luxembourg's police force of 2,542 officers have had to adapt to enforcing Covid-19 restrictions on wearing face masks, curfews and social distancing. They carried out some 17,400 checks between March 16 and December 31, 2020, with around 4,800 fines handed out.
