The Security Forces learned during 2022 of a total of 32,110 criminal offenses in Extremadura, a figure that places the crime rate at 30.4 known criminal events per thousand inhabitants, according to the Crime Balance for the fourth quarter of 2022, published today on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, and which you can consult in this link www.estadisticasdecriminalidad.es
Extremadura therefore maintains a low crime rate compared to the other autonomous communities. The 30.4 crimes known per 1,000 inhabitants represent less than half of the 64.5 recorded in the Balearic Islands, or the 61.0 recorded in Catalonia; other regions such as Madrid are 59.4 crimes per 1,000 inhabitants or 51.6 in the Valencian Community. Even the regions close to Extremadura, such as Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha or Castilla y León are higher with 44.7, 39.4 or 36.7 respectively.
By province, the rate of criminal offenses has been placed in 2022 in Badajoz in 32.0 and in Cáceres in 27.7 offenses per thousand inhabitants.
This Crime Balance shows the evolution of criminal offences in Spain registered throughout the past year by the National Police and Civil Guard, and by those local police forces that provide data to the State Security Forces and Corps.
As a statistical novelty, and to have a better X-ray to deal with this phenomenon, this balance includes in each of its entries (municipality, province, autonomous community and national) a specific breakdown on cybercrime. This statistical effort provides more complete information in line with the real evolution of criminality in Spain, affected by the growing penetration and use of the Internet for some years now, which has caused a strong transition of the criminal reality between conventional or traditional criminality, which descends, and the new forms of criminality committed in cyberspace, cybercrime, which maintains an upward trend.
Thus, the total number of criminal offenses registered in the period January to December 2022 in Extremadura adds a total of 32,110, of which 24,577 (76.54 percent of the total) correspond to the category of conventional criminality, which includes all forms of crime not committed in cyberspace and which are maintained, with an increase of barely 0.1% percent over 2019, the reference year being the last one not affected by the restrictions imposed to face the Covid-19 pandemic. In contrast, cybercrime recorded a total of 7,533 criminal offenses accounted for (23.46 percent of the total), which represents an increase of 147.1% over 2019. Thus, in 2022, compared to 2019, the total criminality recorded by the State Security Forces and Corps has grown by 16.4 percent.
Compared to the previous year, that is, 2021, conventional crime has increased by 13.1% and cybercrime has increased by 36%.
These data confirm the large increase in cybercrime in recent years and already account for one in four known crimes in Extremadura. The majority of cybercrimes, 87.4% are computer scams; and data indicates that since 2019 they have multiplied by three.
With regard to the growth of cybercrime, the Ministry of the Interior approved in 2021 the Strategic Plan against Cybercrime and, within the framework of that plan, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, presented last month an ambitious plan to raise public awareness and awareness of the need to increase protection and alert protocols in the use of new relational and commercial lifestyles through the network. In addition, the National Police and Civil Guard have increased their specialized forces in the fight against cybercrime.
Recovery of the troops
Another significant figure is the increase in the number of troops available to the State Security Forces and Corps, with 31 agents more than the previous year. With this increase, there are already 287 more troops than in 2017, which means an increase of 9% in the real workforce. In addition, these data confirm the reversal of the downsizing trend experienced by the State Security Forces and Corps between 2011 and 2017, a period in which the real personnel in Extremadura were reduced by 402 places. Sixty-five per cent of the squares destroyed during the years of the previous Government have already been recovered.
Conventional Criminality
One of the criminal typologies that most concern the State Security Forces and Bodies are the crimes against the sexual freedom of people registered a considerable increase both in 2019 with an increase of 34.9% and in 2021, whose increase has been located at 37.4%. Within this typology, sexual assaults with penetration are especially worrying, which have gone from 18 in 2019 to 26 in 2021 and have risen to 37 in 2022.
Domestic abuse, including gender-based violence, also continues to increase, although this increase was more pronounced between 2019 and 2022, with an increase of 22.3%; while the increase compared to 2021 has not been so strong, rising by 5.6%.
In terms of crimes against property and compared to 2019, theft has been reduced by 2.6%; robberies with violence or intimidation have fallen by 7.5%; although robberies in homes, establishments and other facilities have also grown by 10.5%.
With regard to the crimes of homicide, this balance sheet has counted 10 cases, three of them completed and seven in degree of attempt. Compared to 2019, the decrease has been 40% in the consumables and 12% in the attempts.
Crimes against road safety remain in the same figures with increases of 5.4% compared to 2019 and 3.4% over 2021; and in terms of drug trafficking, there has been a decrease of 18.3% compared to 2019 and 18.5% over 2021.
The safest region
In short, Extremadura remains the safest Autonomous Community in Spain and continues to be at crime rates well below the national average and our environment. However, and despite the fact that in 2022 there is an increase in known crimes of 17.8% compared to the previous year, and 16.4% over 2019, it is an increase that is mainly due to cybercrimes, since conventional crime between 2019 and 2022 has barely changed by 0.1%.
The data collected in the balance sheet published by the Ministry of the Interior also include an increase in the rate of clarification of crimes, with an increase of 13.3%. In 2022, 13,823 crimes have been clarified, which represents 43% of all known crimes and represents an increase of 8.1% compared to 2021; and 8,471 citizens have been detained and/or investigated, which represents an increase of 5.2% compared to 2021.
Together, the available data allow us to conclude that those crimes that are directly related to the preventive action of the State Security Bodies and Forces, such as theft and robbery, continuously evolve towards a decrease; while those that occur in the privacy of people, such as online scams, sexual crimes or ill-treatment increase. Although it is also true that the data indicate a greater awareness of citizens before this type of crime since the increase has slowed down.
On the other hand, criminal behaviours that can only be detected through police action, such as crimes against road safety or drug trafficking, maintain the upward trend, which confirms the effectiveness of the State Security Bodies and Forces.
Transparency.
For the sake of transparency all these data are available and can be consulted in the portal that the Ministry of the Interior has enabled for this purpose. The address of the portal is www.estadisticasdecriminalidad.es