In European prisons, the proportion of foreigners is almost 15 percent. In Eastern Europe in particular, the proportion of foreigners is below average. In Germany it is almost 30 percent. Only Luxembourg is at the level of Switzerland, where around 70 percent of prison inmates are foreigners.
In the EU there were 4032 murders or manslaughters in 2020, in Switzerland there were 47. That is practically a murder every week, but in a European comparison, in which the murders are placed in relation to the population, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe are the most leader. Despite many mafia stories, the murder rate in Italy, at 0.48 per 100,000 inhabitants, is even significantly lower than in the other three EU countries (Spain 0.63, Germany 0.86 and France 1.31).
France, the “land of love”, is also one of the countries with the highest relative number of sex crimes, in absolute terms the country is even at the top of Europe. But the Scandinavian countries have even higher rates, led by Sweden (204 offenses per 100,000 people), Iceland, Norway and Denmark.
The same countries are the best in terms of rape in particular (Sweden 86 per 100,000 inhabitants). Switzerland ranks in the middle with 8.4 – ie ten times less. At the bottom of the ranking are the Balkans and similar countries, where many of these offenses are likely to go unreported. Strong growth rates in serious crimes (murders, rapes) per capita are particularly evident in Sweden, where around 1.9 million people have immigrated since 2006.
In Switzerland, on the other hand, there is obviously a lot to gain: when it comes to burglaries and thefts, Switzerland is just behind Scandinavia at the top. The ranking is led by Sweden (3012 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). Switzerland, with 1,458 robberies, burglaries and thefts, has around 40 percent more such offenses than the three large EU countries Germany, France and Italy.
However, just as revealing as the crime statistics are the data on the cost of serving sentences in prisons. How much do convicts cost us? Using Eurostat statistics as a basis, one finds some surprisingly high amounts. Even if the last known figures are from 2020, it can hardly be assumed that the effective costs per occupant have fallen in the meantime.
The prisoners cared for in Swiss prisons in 2020 cost 1,430 million francs (2021: 1,445 million), which works out to a per capita amount of just over 230,000 francs. Although the number of prisoners has “only” increased by 17 percent to 6,183 since 2008, the costs have increased by a whopping 70 percent, calculated per inmate it is still 46 percent. It can’t be due to inflation, as it was only 3.6 percent during this period. These percentages look relatively harmless, but in these twelve years alone taxpayers had to raise more than CHF 15 billion for the prison system, of which around CHF 11 billion went to foreign prisoners.
How does this cost compare to the rest of Europe?
On average in Europe, imprisoning a person in 2020 cost around 53,000 euros (Switzerland: 216,000 euros) per year. Only in the Netherlands (271,000 euros) and in Luxembourg (214,000 euros) do prisoners live more expensively or similarly expensively than in Switzerland. Even in Germany (58,000), France (69,000), Italy (64,000) and Austria (66,000) taxpayers’ money can obviously be used better than in this country.
