Coronavirus pandemic caused crime to fall in 2020

The number of criminal cases launched by the Czech Republic’s High Public Prosecutor’s Office saw a year-on-year comparative fall by 30,000 cases to a total of 181,924, according to the office’s annual report published on its website on Wednesday.

According to the report, the main reason behind the fall in crime was the coronavirus epidemic. Furthermore, cases are also believed to have fallen due to new legislation launched in October 2020, which raised the minimum threshold for property crimes from CZK 5,000 to CZK 10,000.

Despite the fall in crime, the report states that little has changed in terms of patterns of criminal behaviour. Property crimes remain the most common form of criminal activity. The rate of violent crimes stagnated. Meanwhile, the number of reported cyber crimes continued to rise.