Rapes and sexual abuse grow by 24% compared to before the pandemic in Barcelona and Catalonia
The crime statistics of the Ministry of the Interior indicate a drop in robberies and thefts in the Catalan community but the trend of more violent crimes continues
Despite the awareness campaigns promoted by the administrations, actions on equality in education for the youngest or regulatory changes, such as the ‘s is s’ law, sexual violence continues to increase. See data statisticians of the Ministry of the Interior, based on information from all the State security bodies and forces, so far in 2022 there have been more crimes against sexual freedom Catalonia Y Barcelona if compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic.
With respect to 2020 and 2021, so far in 2022 the set of criminal offenses has risen throughout the community and its main cities. However, as in these years the volume of movements of the population or tourist traffic was low due to sanitary restrictions due to covid, the Generalitat as well as the City Council of Barcelona They make the statistical comparison of security with 2019 when the situation was more normal among the citizen.
For this reason, the statistical data on crimes compared between 2019 and 2022 highlight that crimes as a whole have decreased throughout Catalonia and also in the Catalan capital, but there are differences by criminal type, as is also the case with the figures for the first two quarters of the year. ao. Thus, it follows the trend that crimes against property, such as robberies or thefts, have decreased, thanks to police prevention and response devices in crowded areas during the summer, while violent crimes continue to grow.
The statistics indicate that in Catalonia 23.8% have suspected crimes against sexual freedom, going from 2,292 in the first nine months of 2019 to 2,839 in the same period of 2022. In addition, comparing years, sexual assaults have risen by 30%, going from 419 to 545, while the rest of sexual crimes, such as abuse, grew by 22.4%, going from 1,873 in 2019 to 2,294 in 2022. Other violent crimes such as injuries and fights, 21.68%, from 2,523 to 3,070, and attempted murders or murders, from 142 to 154. Consummated crimes drop from 41 to 39.
One of the most significant figures is the significant increase in drug trafficking, a crime that in recent years has been increasingly present in Catalonia due to the number of existing marijuana plantations, both abroad and locally, since it is a business lucrative as it is easy to export to France with little investment. It went from 2,007 cases in the first quarters of 2019 to 3,015 in the same period of 2022.
In total, Catalonia registers 366,459 criminal offenses between January and September 2019 and 354,618 in the same months of 2022, representing a drop of 3.23%. It is mainly explained by the sharp decrease against assets, such as robberies with force and intimidation, which have gone from 19,372 to 18,513, robberies to businesses, from 24,788 to 20,469, or robberies with force in homes, from 17,081 to 14,726. Thefts also dropped from 147,392 to 120,531 so far this year and vehicle thefts, from 7,119 in the first 9 months of 2019 to 5,366, at the same time in 2022. This also increased in Catalonia if the years are compared were the complaints for fraud, mainly those that are committed over the Internet.
More rapes in Barcelona
The x-ray of crime in Barcelona is similar to that of the community as a whole. It also increases crimes against sexual freedom, going from 625 in the first nine months of 2019 to 791 this year in that period of time. Sexual assaults or rapes have gone from 110 to 124 while other crimes, such as abuse, went from 515 to 667. However, unlike Catalonia, there are less violent crimes. Murders or homicides dropped from 15 in the first three quarters of 2019 to 8 in the same period of time this year, while attempted murders or homicides and crimes of injuries and fights also fell from 38 to 26, from 2,408 in 2019 to 742 this 2022, a very significant drop.
However, in the city, criminal offenses dropped from 150,015 in the first nine months of 2019 to 123,842 in the same period of this 2022. The strong devices deployed by the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Urban Police in the Catalan capital, mainly aimed at nightlife areas, shopping centers and points of tourist attraction, have reduced this type of crime as well as robberies and thefts. The deterrent effect of the uniformed agents plus the work in civilian clothes with patrols in these places plus the control of public spaces such as squares or games where they used to drink have caused this drop in fights and injuries.
In this sense, the police operations were designed, in most cases when they were deployed for commercial expenses, to control the increase in thefts and robberies. In this way, the pressure from the Mossos and Urbana has managed to contain crimes against property despite the fact that insecurity continues to be one of the most important concerns of the people of Barcelona according to the municipal barometer.
In this way, and in comparison between the first nine months from 2019 to 2022, robberies with violence and intimidation fell from 10,799 to 9,641 complaints, while assaults on businesses fell from 7,142 to 4,830, and at homes from 4,219 to 3,632 and thefts from 83,965 to 58,633. As in the rest of Catalonia, drug trafficking has skyrocketed in the city from 380 cases in that period of 2019 to 1,162 this 2022. Without a doubt, security in the city will focus a good part of the political debate in the coming May elections.
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