Spanish crime report 2021: fewer homicides, more rapes
The 1,960,113 criminal offenses registered in 2021 represent a decrease of 10.9 percent compared to 2019, when 2,199,475 offenses were recorded
According to the Ministry of the Interior, during 2021, the Spanish Security Forces were aware of a total of 1,960,113 criminal offences.
This figure places the crime rate in Spain at 41.4 criminal acts per thousand inhabitants, the lowest in the recent historical series, from which 2020 must be excluded due to the confinements and other special circumstances created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is stated in the latest annual report on crime, to which the National Police, Civil Guard, regional police (Ertzaintza, Mossos d'Esquadra and Navarre Foral Police) and Local Police forces provide data.
The 1,960,113 criminal offenses registered in 2021 represent a decrease of 10.9 percent compared to 2019, when 2,199,475 offenses were recorded.
The reductions in intentional homicides and consummated murders (-12.4%), robberies with violence or intimidation (-19.4%), robberies with force, thefts and other property crimes stand out, as well as in the total number of criminal infractions.
Increase in number of rapes
However, However, not all are declines in the different types of crime. On the contrary, the report shows an increase in crimes of a sexual nature (+11.1%), which is especially high in the case of penetrative sexual assaults (+14.4%).
The Ministry of the Interior links this increase in sexual offences "with the active policies of social awareness, which have caused a greater willingness of the victims to report these crimes."
Drug trafficking crimes are also on the rise (+10.2%). In this case, the Ministry of the Interior says that this is due to the actions of the state security forces within the framework of specific plans such as the Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar, given that very few complaints are registered in these crimes.