Published annually by each West German state, its purpose is to aid in crime prevention and repression, organizational planning, criminological research, and policymaking. The first section provides an overall survey of criminal activity in Nordrhein-Westfalen including crimes in the different counties and surveys on crime developments from 1972 to 1991. The following short sections focus on specific issues such as political offenses, drug offenses, and high crime areas. The detailed section on suspects of crimes includes information on age and gender, nationality, employment status, intoxication or addiction involved in the crime, and juvenile suspects. The following section analyzes the situation of specific major offense categories such as homicide, rape, robbery, larceny, and environmental offenses. The statistics conclude with charts on missing persons, suicides, and convicted offenders.