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Crime, Public Safety and Law

The FBI estimates that violent crime fell in the United States in 2025. In the EU, police recorded more rape offences and fewer robberies in 2024. Court records show how individual attacks and disputes played out.

All illustrations · City reporting · Violent crime and sexual offences · Retail theft · Church arson · Religious rules and civil law

Palestinian flags held above a pro-Palestinian march on a Paris boulevard
Paris · Pro-Palestinian march with Palestinian flags · Editorial illustration. Read the protest and court records research

2026 updates

Research feature · From Street Protests to Court Records

Crime & Law by city

Local police figures, individual prosecutions and legal records from Europe and the United States.

Europe

North America

Oceania

Violent crime and sexual offences

United States · estimated change in offences, 2024 to 2025
Violent crime-9.3%
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter-18.1%
Robbery-18.5%
Rape-7.6%
Aggravated assault-7.2%

Bar length shows the size of the change. Every category shown decreased. Source data

European Union · change in police-recorded offences, 2023 to 2024
Sexual violence, including rape+5.0%
Rape+6.8%
Robbery-4.0%

The signs show the direction of change. Rape is part of the sexual violence category. Do not add the bars. Source data

Eurostat counted 256,302 police-recorded sexual violence offences in 2024, including 98,190 rapes. The increase in recorded rape is serious. Changes in reporting, offence definitions and police recording practices affect how the figures should be read. Neither chart isolates assaults in public places. Eurostat release

The US National Crime Victimization Survey also asks about offences never reported to police. Its 2024 report estimated that 24% of rape or sexual assault victimizations were reported to police, down from 46% in 2023. The survey and the FBI’s police series measure different things. Bureau of Justice Statistics survey, 2024 · Police estimates, 2025

Robbery, shoplifting and organised retail theft

Robbery involves force or threat. Shoplifting and organised theft can occur without either. The robbery chart therefore cannot measure every incident often called looting.

Federal prosecutors in Rhode Island documented 35 theft incidents across four states in a retail theft case in which four defendants were convicted and sentenced. In a separate New York case, prosecutors described a ring that moved more than $1 million in stolen merchandise through a pawn shop. These records show the reach of specific enterprises. They do not estimate losses across the retail sector. Rhode Island sentencing record · New York sentencing record

Church arson cases

Glasgow, Scotland. A 2021 fire destroyed St Simon’s Roman Catholic Church. Nearby residents were evacuated and police reported no injuries. The defendant pleaded guilty to wilful fire-raising and danger to life. Police Scotland reported a prison sentence of five years and three months in 2022. Police Scotland sentencing notice

Douglas, Arizona. Two churches burned in May 2023. A jury convicted the defendant of arson and hate crime offences. The Department of Justice’s account attributes the attacks to hostility over the churches’ acceptance of LGBTQ people. Justice Department sentencing release

Maltby, Washington. A fire destroyed a church in August 2023. The defendant pleaded guilty to arson, damage to religious property and obstruction of religious exercise. A federal court imposed a six-year prison sentence. These prosecutions document individual attacks. A trend would require a series that distinguishes intentional fires from accidents and uses comparable reporting across years. Justice Department sentencing release

Where religious rules meet civil law

Greece. Greek courts applied Islamic inheritance rules to a civil will made by a member of the Muslim minority in Thrace. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found that the compulsory treatment discriminated against the widow. A Greek reform had already made recourse to a mufti in the relevant family and inheritance matters conditional on agreement. The case concerns a defined legal regime and a specific inheritance dispute. Grand Chamber judgment, paragraphs 160–161

England and Wales. The independent review found that sharia councils have no binding authority under civil law. It also heard evidence that some women faced discriminatory treatment while seeking a religious divorce. The review describes how informal procedures can affect people even when the institutions lack legal power to decide a civil case. Independent review

United States. In Awad v. Ziriax, a federal appeals court upheld an injunction against implementing a voter-approved Oklahoma amendment that singled out sharia for exclusion from state court decisions. The dispute concerned a proposed restriction on courts. The ruling did not enact a religious code. A claim that a city imposed religious law requires an ordinance, judgment or enforcement record identifying the rule and its legal effect. Federal appeals court opinion