Crime in Belgium

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Contents 1 General overview 2 Crime and racial tension 2.1 Terrorism and crime 3 References 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] General overview

According to the United States Department of State, Belgium is a relatively safe country compared to its neighbouring countries, but other sources show otherwise. According to Urban Audit, an organization which reports a range of statistics for cities in the EU, in 2001, Brussels had the fourth highest number of recorded crimes of European capitals (behind Stockholm,Amsterdam, and Berlin, and virtually on a par with Helsinki). According to the same source, Brussels had a rate of 10 murders or violent deaths per 100.000 citizens, which is five times higher than Paris (2 per 100.000) (but only two times higher than in Inner London, and the overall crime rate is similar to that of Paris). Belgium's second largest city, Antwerp, saw crime rates about 20 % below those of Brussels. Liège and Charleroi, industrial cities with high unemployment rates in Wallonia, saw more elevated crime rates than the less industrialized cities of Ghent and Bruges, in Flanders.

In the last decades, attacks on money transit vans were perpetrated, often killing the security agents in charge, and the country was hit by several large-scale crime scandals, such as those of the tueurs du Brabant wallon, the mafia des hormones and the affaire Dutroux, presumably associated with police and political class corruption. Crime rates and urban violence are higher in poorer cities such as Liège and Charleroi. In addition, petty crimes such as street thefts, purse snatchings, and pickpocketing are common. Car theft also occurs frequently. Despite the fact that, on a daily basis and at first sight, Belgium can appear as a comparatively peaceful and quiet country, recent developments generate tensions in the social system.

[edit] Crime and racial tension

A study based on data from 1999 concluded that minors of non-European nationality were overrepresented in crime statistics. While 4.4% of the Belgian population has a non-European nationality, 19% of all prosecuted cases, and 24% of cases presented in youth court involved non-European nationals. When foreign descent, instead of nationality, was used as a criterion, these numbers rose to 28% and 44% respectively. How much of the population would be classified as being of foreign descent according this criterion is unclear, which makes global conclusions based on the latter percentages rather speculative.

In 2002, there was some controversy when a Muslim teenager was found guilty of a robbery with murder and was sentenced to an admonition. However, the ruling was confirmed and the protests subsided.

Usually, serious safety issues in Brussels are mostly limited to residential boroughs with a low income population, mainly composed of North African immigrants. These include notably Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Schaarbeek, Anderlecht, and Vorst. Recently, violent muggings (in several cases resulting in death) and cases of women no longer being able to wear revealing clothes because of violence committed by radical Muslims against them, have also been reported in other parts of the city.

In November 2005, Brussels was very minorly affected by the spread of the French riots. Another recent development is a steep increase in violent armed robberies carried out by minors. Some of these are conducted by sneaking up to the victim and strangling him/her until he/she loses consciousness.

[edit] Terrorism and crime

Besides general safety issues in some boroughs, Brussels reportedly serves as a hub for terrorists, as reported by various sources such as Interpol, and local newspapers called Het Nieuwsblad and Het Volk. In the same boroughs that pose safety problems (e.g. Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Schaarbeek, ...) there is radicalisation and active recruitment by terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda. As stated by Hind Fraihi of Het Nieuwsblad, the recruitment is done in mosques, with the actual training done in Afghanistan. Recently a female suicide bomber in Iraq, Muriel Degauque, became the first Western suicide bomber in modern terrorism (although she was not trained in Brussels but in Charleroi, one of the cities with the highest crime rates in Belgium).

The two Tunisian nationals who assassinated Commander Massoud in Afghanistan had fake Belgian passports, and the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain, or GICM) has links in Belgium too - there were arrests in Brussels and Antwerp of individuals involved in the Madrid bombing.

Belgium has also seen "hate crimes" against visible minorities recently, including the Hans Van Themsche case or other acts of racist violence highlighting Belgium's race anxiety.

[edit] References

• Belgium, USA Department of State. Belgium.
• Urban Audit: How cities rank, Urban Audit: How cities rank, UrbanAudit.org.
• {Dutch} Abnormaal veel minderjarige allochtonen in criminaliteitscijfers, Het Laatste Nieuws.
• Belgian 'suicide bomber' is named], BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4488642.stm. *

[edit] See also

• Brussels
• Joe Van Holsbeeck

[edit] External links

• UrbanAudit.org