Dutch police received over 10,000 sex crime reports last year
The police received 10,215 reports of sex crimes in 2025, a 13 percent increase compared to the year before. The number of reports concerning online sex abuse increased particularly hard. Charges were pressed in 6,200 cases, up from 5,100 in 2024, AD reports based on police figures.
The reports include crimes ike sexual assault, rape, sextortion, and grooming. Child sex abuse images are classified under a different category. The number of sex crime reports increases almost every year. In 2015, the police recorded only 6,804 such reports.
Last year, the increase in sex crime reports was largest in the provinces of Drenthe (+30 percent) and Utrecht (+22 percent). But the increase is visible nationwide. A large proportion of reports concern online sexual violence, including reports about “Com groups,” online sadistic groups that share extremely violent images and coerce children into harming themselves or others. Earlier this month, it was revealed that these groups coerced at least five Dutch girls to attempt suicide.
The increase in reports and charges pressed is partly due to the implementation of the new Sexual Offenses Act in July 2024. The new law takes the burden of proof off of victims and considers sex without explicit consent to be rape. The new Sexual Offenses Act also criminalizes public sexual harassment, including online, and the sexual solicitation of children under the age of 16.
Suzanne Bouma, senior researcher on violence in dependent relationships at the Center of Expertise Safety & Resilience at Avans University of Applied Sciences, is not surprised by the nationwide increase in sex crime reports. “These forms of violence occur across all social classes, both in urban and rural areas,” she told AD.
There is also more willingness among victims to come forward, largely due to increased focus on social safety. “Victims are therefore more likely to recognize what happened to them is a crime.”
