During the first three months of 2016, the Danish police registered a record number of rapes.
In total, there were 173 registered rapes during the first quarter of the year – an increase of 66 percent on the average number registered between 2012 and 2014.
During those three years, the average figure for the first six months was 158.
“Part of the increase is probably because we’ve started registering the cases differently,” Michael Kjeldsgaard, a police inspector with the National Investigation Centre, told Metroxpress newspaper.
“This might also be down to the greater focus there has been on rape recently, which may have urged more to report rapes to the police.”
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Last year, the police began registering cases that had previously been classified as ‘investigation numbers’. These involved cases in which the police never charged a person.
But still, that doesn’t explain the rise in rape charges from 274 in 2013 to 327 in 2015.
“It’s a positive sign, and the increased number of charges could mean that the police are beginning to take the cases more seriously,” said Stinne Bech, a spokesperson from Amnesty International Denmark.
“It’s really good that we can now get some actual figures on how many rapes are being reported.”
