Oslo - Crime

Crime

Oslo Police District is Norway's largest police district with over 2300 employees. Over 1700 of those are police officers, nearly 140 police lawyers and 500 civil employees. Oslo Police District has five police stations located around the city. The National Criminal Investigation Service is located in Oslo, which is a Norwegian special police division under the NMJP. PST is also located in the Oslo District. PST is a security agency which was established in 1936 and is one of the non-secret agencies in Norway.

Oslo police stated that the capital is one of Europe's safest. But the statistics have showed that crime in Oslo is on the rise, and some media have reported that there are four times as many thefts and robberies in Oslo than in New York City for example. This was echoed by the German travel guide Dumont who now describes the city as being unsafe female tourists. The guide also named Oslo "The Crime capital of Scandinavia". According to the Oslo Police, they receive more the 15.000 reports of petty thefts annually. That is per capita more than seven times the number of Berlin for example. Approx 0.8% of those cases get solved.

The City has witnessed annual spikes in Sexual assault cases in recent years. The official Committee on Sexual assaults (Voldteksutvalget) have reported that around 90% of rape incidents in Norway go unreported. And that there is about 1% chance that the rapist will be convicted. Activists have claimed that women's lack of due process in rape cases is seriously affecting women's rights in Norway.

On 22 July 2011, Oslo was the site of one of two terrorist attacks: the bombing of Oslo government offices, and a shooting at a youth camp in Utøya.