Teenager with knife robs 16-year-old in Vienna – police are looking for witnesses!

Teenager with knife robs 16-year-old in Vienna – police are looking for witnesses!

In Vienna on October 20, 2024, an unknown teenager robbed a 16-year-old on the street with a knife. The crime took place on Rußbergstrasse in Floridsdorf. The perpetrator, who is believed to be between 14 and 18 years old and is said to be around 1.80 meters tall, only spoke broken German and has dark hair and eyes. The police are currently looking for this suspect and suspect that at least one accomplice was involved in the crime. Anyone with information about the identity of the perpetrator is asked to contact the Vienna State Criminal Police Office to get in touch.

Knife attacks are increasing

This brutal act comes in a context in which knife crime is increasingly becoming the focus of public discussion. According to criminologist Martin Thüne, there are signs that the number of knife attacks in 2023 increased by 5.6 percent compared to the previous year, which corresponds to around 9,000 cases. Thüne confirmed that the process of preventing violence and researching the causes is complex, but also emphasized that often too little is known about the actual circumstances and motivation for the crime. Crime statistics do not adequately capture the phenomenon because the police only began systematically documenting knives as a means of crime a few years ago taz reported. Experts also discuss the use of weapons in society and the availability of illegal firearms as relevant factors.

Thüne criticizes the fact that current measures are usually short-term and often do not answer the questions of why certain people become violent. Particularly in connection with the debate about migration and knife crime, he makes it clear that a disproportionate number of perpetrators who are perceived as foreign do not reflect the overall situation. Almost 50 to 70 percent of knife attacks are carried out by perpetrators with a German passport. It would therefore be necessary to think about comprehensive violence prevention programs and invest in social work, instead of relying solely on actionist bans, which may have little impact on the actual causes.