page_title: 2015–16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany
hierarchical_section_title: 2015–16 New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Kölner Dom Nordseite und Bahnhofsvorplatz bei Nacht
context_page_description: During the 2015–16 public New Year's Eve's celebrations in Germany, over 1,250 women in at least twelve cities reportedly were sexually assaulted with 24 of them raped, in most cases by men of non-European background. In many of the incidents, women in public places had been surrounded and assaulted by groups of men. The Bundeskriminalamt confirmed in July 2016 that 1,200 women had been sexually assaulted on that New Year's night.
  By 4 January 2016, the German national media followed by international media reported that in Cologne – as later appeared to hold for all affected cities – the sexual assaulters had mostly been described as 'north African' or 'Arab' or 'dark skinned' or 'foreign', and public debates arose or were invigorated about the possible role of refugees in these assaults; about closing the German borders for further generous immigration; securing the Schengen area borders against unchecked immigration; debates about Islam and Muslims; violence against women; police vigilance; racism; Germany's failure to integrate the thousands of young immigrant men; and about media and authorities trying to cover-up the crimes of immigrants.
context_section_description: During the 2015–16 public New Year's Eve's celebrations in Germany, over 1,250 women in at least twelve cities reportedly were sexually assaulted with 24 of them raped, in most cases by men of non-European background. In many of the incidents, women in public places had been surrounded and assaulted by groups of men. The  Bundeskriminalamt (German Federal Criminal Police) confirmed in July 2016 that 1,200 women had been sexually assaulted on that New Year's night. 
  By 4 January 2016, the German national media followed by international media reported that in Cologne – as later appeared to hold for all affected cities – the sexual assaulters had mostly been described as 'north African' or 'Arab' or 'dark skinned' or 'foreign', and public debates arose or were invigorated about the possible role of refugees in these assaults; about closing the German borders for further generous immigration; securing the Schengen area borders against unchecked immigration; debates about Islam and Muslims; violence against women; police vigilance; racism;  Germany's failure to integrate the thousands of young immigrant men; and about media and authorities trying to cover-up the crimes of immigrants. 
  On 5 January 2016, the German government and the Cologne police speculated that the attacks might have been organized. However, by 21 January, the North Rhine-Westphalian  government declared that there were no indications of premeditated organized attacks, and on 11 February the new Cologne police president stated the same. Instead, the Cologne police chief suggested that the perpetrators had come from countries where such sexual assaults by groups of men are common. That suggestion was confirmed in a  Federal Criminal Police report in June 2016, which also identified five more factors contributing to the occurrence of the attacks: group pressure, absence of police intervening, frustrations of migrants, disinhibition from the use of alcohol or drugs, and disinhibition from the absence of social ties in Germany. The New Year's Eve's sexual assaults led to several more reactions and effects.	
  By April 2016, two-thirds of the identified 153 suspects in Cologne of sexual and other crimes on the New Year's Eve were originally from Morocco or Algeria, 44% were asylum seekers, another 12% were probably illegally in Germany, 3% were underaged unaccompanied refugees. By July 2016, the police stated that half of the 120 identified suspects nationwide of sexual offences on the New Year's Eve had arrived in Germany during the year 2015, most of those 120 had come from North Africa,  and four suspects nationwide had been convicted. By November 2016, nationwide around 200 suspects of the sexual assaults, on a total of 2,000 presumed perpetrators, had been identified.
caption: Most of the assaults in Cologne took place on the plaza between central railway station (left) and cathedral
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