Zusammenfassung (übersetzt):
After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany experienced an increase in police-recorded child and juvenile delinquency that attracted considerable public attention. Given the limitations of official crime statistics, the parliament of the state of North Rhine-Westfalia asked the state government for an independent scientific study that would examine the existence, extent and potential causes of an increase in child and juvenile delinquency and identify policy implications. This ECONtribute Policy Brief is the first output of this study. It contains the German-language interim report which gives first descriptive results from a large-scale school survey conducted in the fall and winter of 2024. The regional survey re-visited secondary schools that participated in a previous study from 2013 to 2016. The new survey included more than 3700 students at 27 secondary schools in three cities of the Ruhr area. In the following, we summarize key findings for an international audience. Further analyses and results will be published at a later point in time as part of the final report.