A new YouGov survey examines confidence in the police and perceptions of crime in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain

Key takeaways

  • New YouGov study examines confidence in the police and perceptions of crime in Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain
  • In most countries the majority have confidence in the police, except in Britain where 53% say they have little to no confidence
  • Most in each country think crime has been rising nationally
  • 44% of people in France think their country has higher rates of crime than other countries
  • Britons and Germans tend to think knife crime is uniquely high in their countries, Italians and Spaniards say the same of corruption, while French people think so about drug crimes
  • Many Danes have a belief that crime in Sweden is particularly high

A new YouGov survey examines confidence in the police and perceptions of crime in six major Western European nations: Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

How much confidence do Western Europeans have in the police?

In most countries we surveyed, the majority have confidence in the police, both nationally and locally. Danes prove to have the highest level of confidence in police, with 74% saying so of the politiet nationally, with 57-64% of Spaniards, French, Germans and Italians saying the same of their own national police forces.

The UK proves to be the exception, with just 43% of Britons saying they have a lot or a fair amount of confidence in the police nationally, compared to 53% who have little to no confidence.

When it comes to police in their local area, Britons are more divided, with 46% expressing confidence but 49% lacking it. These figures are consistent with YouGov UK tracking data, which shows a significant decline in confidence between 2020 and 2022, with numbers only slowly improving in the time since.

Western Europeans believe that crime has been rising

While most Western Europeans might have confidence in the police, at the same time they also believe that crime has been rising nationally in Denmark to 78% in France and 80% in Italy. When it comes to violent crimes specifically, the numbers remain largely the same.

When it comes to crime locally, perceptions become somewhat less negative, although it is still the prevailing view that crime is rising in respondents’ local areas in France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK.

Only in Denmark is the more common view is that crime levels have remained about the same locally, with 47-48% saying so, versus 32-33% who think violent crime and crime in general have been rising.

While French people and Italians are noticeably more likely than other countries to think crime has gone up “a lot” nationally (53-54% for crime in general), this gap closes substantially when it comes to crime locally.

How do Western Europeans think crime levels in their countries compare to other Western nations?

While Western Europeans tend to think that crime is on the up, do they believe that the level of crime in their own countries stands out compared to the rest of the West?

A plurality of people in France believe that crime there is higher than in other Western countries, with 44% saying so.

This compares to 37-38% in Britain, Italy and Spain, where this view either ties with or lags behind the number who consider crime rates to be about the same with the rest of the West.

By contrast, only 27% of Germans think crime is higher in Germany than elsewhere, and just 11% of Danes feel the same about their own country – indeed, fully 37% of Danes feel that crime is lower in Denmark than other Western countries.

What kinds of crimes do Western Europeans think are uniquely common in their country?

As well as looking at how Western Europeans think their crime rates compare to other countries, we also sought to uncover a picture of how they feel the characteristic of those crimes differs from other nations.

For instance, Britons in particular think the UK uniquely suffers from high rates of knife crime, with 60% saying so. This compares to 40% of Germans who think the same is true of Germany (in which country this is also the most common answer), while this figure stands at 24-30% in the other countries surveyed.

French people are particularly likely to think that drug trafficking and distribution are uniquely widespread in their country, with 61% saying so. The French are also the most likely to think that drug use is particularly common nationally, at 55%.

Likewise, the French are notably more inclined to say their country has unique problems with rioting and public disorder (42%, compared to 7-21% elsewhere), and driving-related offences (40%, versus 20-30% of other nationalities saying the same of their countries).

People in both Spain and Italy are especially likely to say that corruption is a uniquely large problem in their countries, at 56% and 46% respectively. This compares to 30% in France – the next closest – and falls to just 7% in Denmark.

Italians also prove to be the most likely to think their country has a specific problem with organised crime, at 41%, compared to 16-32% in other nations.

In Denmark, the most common answer given is financial and economic crimes, such as money laundering, at 43%. This is the only category where Danes are the most likely country to think this is a particular problem nationally.

Looking at the other end of the scale, we can see that Germans are particularly less likely to think they have a notable problem with drug trafficking (23%), while Danes are much less likely to think corruption, violent crime, murder and sex crime are elevated problems nationally. Together, these two countries are also much less likely to think they have problems with street gangs and youth gang violence (23-25%) than the other countries surveyed (37-48%).

Which other Western European countries do Western Europeans see as having a particular problem with crime?

We also asked Western Europeans to turn their gaze outward, and tell us what countries (other than their own) in this portion of the continent they believe have a particular problem with crime in general.

While the bulk of respondents in each country (between 46% and 76%) answer either “don’t know” or don’t think any other countries have a particular problem with crime, there are a few perceptions that stand out.

The most notable is that 38% of Danes think that Sweden specifically has a problem with crime, a view not shared by any of the other public surveyed (where the equivalent figure is just 4-7%).

To a lesser degree, we see the same trend in France regarding Belgium: 18% of French people believe their north-eastern neighbour has a particular problem with crime, compared to 4-7% in the other countries we asked.

Otherwise, the countries we surveyed are relatively more likely to say that France (17-23%) and the UK (12-24%) have problems with crime.

See full results here

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Photo: Getty

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