Property crime makes up the most reported crime in Denmark, accounting for around 308 thousand of all reported crime cases in 2019. However, criminal complaints concerning this specific type of crime decreased considerably over the past decade, while reports against both violent and sex crimes increased. In 2019, roughly 29 thousand violent and 6.6 thousand sex crime cases were reported to the Danish authorities. Considering sex offences, the number of reported rape cases tripled in just five years, from 584 reports in 2014 to more than 1.6 thousand in 2019. The number of rape charges, though, did not increase correspondingly, and only 314 cases of rape ended up as charges in 2019. In order to circumvent this tendency, the Danish government passed a new law based on sexual consent as of September 2020, following its neighboring country Sweden.
The number of people found guilty of a crime increased since 2009, but decreased in the past few years. In 2018, approximately 144.5 thousand people were charged with a crime in Denmark. With nearly 113 thousand convictions, most criminals were males, compared to around 31.6 thousand females. Among the people who were sentenced to imprisonment in 2019, serving between 31 and 60 days was most common. That same year, two people were sentenced to life imprisonment. In this case, probation is possible after serving 12 years. Most people serving a life sentence in Denmark get released after 16 to 17 years.
