Zurich Youth Survey 2021 (ZYS 2021)

The latest Zurich Youth Survey 2021 shows that overall rates of violence among young people are increasing again, after significantly decreasing trends were observed between the two previous surveys in 2007 and 2014. The increase relates in particular to sexual offenses and robbery as well as school bullying.

Since 1999, thousands of young people have been surveyed about their experiences as victims and perpetrators of violence in the Zurich Youth Surveys at intervals of 7 to 8 years (see info box at the end of the text). Such surveys on the “dark figure” of crime and violence allow to go beyond the police crime statistics (PCS) to examine long-term trends in violence, delinquency, substance use and other problem behaviour among young people and to determine possible causes for trend reversals. This is important because only reported offenses are recorded in the PCS, and because the reporting rate for violent offenses in particular is low and can change significantly.