Dutch murder rate rises this year, with a boom in gangland killings

The number of murders committed in the Netherlands this year has already reached the 2016 total, according to calculations by Elsevier magazine.

Thursdays’ suspected gangland killing in Spijkenisse takes the total to 108 so far in 2017, the magazine said.

This year in particular there have been a high number of gang-related deaths with 19 people dying so far. Elsevier also notes that nine Polish nationals have died in the Netherlands this year.

Elsevier has kept a record of the Dutch murder rate since 1992 and says the total has been going down steadily since then, reaching a record low last year. Some 80% of murders are eventually solved.

The CBS has different figures. It says 110 people were murdered in the Netherlands last year, a drop of 10 on 2015 and less than half the number unlawfully killed in 2000.