The German Federal Ministry of the Interior is supporting a move by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) to record multiple citizenships in criminal statistics.
A ministry spokesperson stated to the “Tagesspiegel” newspaper that the NRW approach – now including the documentation of all citizenships held by both perpetrators and victims in police crime statistics – is “understandable and sensible” and leads to “greater transparency.
The ministry acknowledges, however, that incorporating this data into the national police crime statistics requires coordination with all German states. Achieving this will necessitate a consensus decision amongst the states and the federal government – a process that has historically proven time-consuming when implementing new statistical criteria.
