Number of murders in Netherlands drop to record low in 2016

The number of murders and manslaughters in the Netherlands dropped to 109 in 2016, according to Elsevier's annual murder list. That is the lowest number of killings since the list was started in 1992.

The record low number of murders does not match the public's idea of violent crimes in the Netherlands, according to Elsevier. "Assassinations get excessive attention in the media an the public therefore has the impression that everything is going wrong", the magazine writes.

According to Elsevier, the decline can be attribute to less violence in the drug circuit, fewer heroin addicts and the increasingly popularity of the internet - more people stay inside and therefore run less risk of being murdered. 

The number of violent deaths in the Netherlands has been decreasing for years. When the murder list was started in the 1990's there were years with more than 250 deaths. In 2014 there were 137 violent deaths in the country, dropping to 115 in 2015 and now down to 109 in 2016.