The headline in Friday’s Dagbladet screamed, ‘OSLO less safe than NEW YORK’. Dagbladet is a tabloid, and so prone to hyperbole, but it seems the paper has the facts to back the statement up. Here are some of them:
From 2006 to 2007, the incidence of robbery in Oslo grew by 20%.
Last year, Oslo had the highest rate per person in Scandinavia in terms of reported crimes, with 90 reported crimes per 1,000.
Copenhagen had 50 crimes reported per 1,000 and Stockholm had 79.
In New York, there were 22 reported crimes per 1,000 inhabitants.
This means there were four times as many reported crimes per person in Oslo as in New York.
Car break-ins in Oslo increased by 18% last year (that’s 5200 incidents reported).
Every day last year an average of 29 people in Oslo were victims of theft.
Technically we don’t live in Oslo but in Akershus which according to the figures is a much less crime-riddled place than the city centre. In fact, the rest of Norway saw a drop in figures for theft in 2007.
The police are blaming an influx of East Europeans.
Oslo is a dozy place compared to Copenhagen and Stockholm but this is hardly the kind of excitement residents and visitors are looking for. Let's hope the 'crime capital of Scandinavia' title is one the city won't be able to defend in 2008.
Oh, and in an attempt to balance grim news with something positive, here's smiley face to cheer you up on a Monday morning.
3 comments:
Sad to hear that Norwegians are having to learn not to trust a soul. I suspect the medias evaluation of the situation is right. After all aren't they all so rich compared with Eastern block citizens.
Cute smiley face!
Keep an eye on your roof!
The rape statistics here in Oslo are even worse and blamed on people from Africa and the Middle East.
Personally I've been threatened with knives on a couple of occations.
This place used to be so safe...
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