In 2025, police in Basel-Stadt recorded 1,744 cases of shoplifting (Art. 139 StGB), the vast majority of which were completed offences, with only 14 attempted. The clearance rate was 88.9 percent, meaning police solved nearly nine out of ten reported cases, a figure that remains notably high compared to many other offence types (Figure 1).

The victim profile is dominated by legal entities, which accounted for 192 of the 201 recorded victims. Among the nine natural person victims, gender was not recorded for 192 individuals, making it impossible to draw meaningful conclusions about the sex distribution of affected individuals. Nationality was also not recorded for the same 192 victims, and age was not recorded for 192 victims, leaving only a small number of cases with known demographic details. Among those with known ages, victims were spread across the 18 to 69 age range, with no victims under 18 or over 70 recorded.

Over the full time series from 2009 to 2025, reported shoplifting offences have shown a general upward trend, rising from 1,393 cases in 2009 to 1,744 in 2025, though with notable fluctuations. The lowest number was recorded in 2015 with 1,100 cases, while the highest was in 2023 with 1,896 cases. The clearance rate has remained consistently high throughout the period, ranging from a low of 86.8 percent in 2024 to a high of 94.3 percent in 2020 and 2021, and has not shown a clear directional trend (Figure 1).

A striking observation is the stark contrast between the victim and suspect profiles. While victims were overwhelmingly legal entities, suspects were almost entirely natural persons, with 861 suspects recorded. Among suspects, men were heavily overrepresented, accounting for 669 individuals compared to 192 women. The most common age group among suspects was 18 to 29 years, with 311 suspects, followed by 30 to 39 years with 201 suspects, and 0 to 17 years with 152 suspects, indicating that shoplifting is most frequently committed by young adults and adolescents.