Sexual crimes increase by another 14.6% in the Region of Murcia and there are already around two complaints on average per day

The rebound is especially pronounced in the case of rapes, which grew by 18.3%. The Civil Guard and the National Police Corps investigators recorded up to 110 penetrative sexual assaults in the Community in just twelve months. The Region was the fifth community in which rape complaints increased the most, only surpassed by Asturias, Catalonia, Castilla y León and Galicia. The rest of sexual crimes (551) grew by 13.8%, according to Interior data.

The situation is especially striking in the municipality of Lorca, where, between January and December, up to 42 people reported having been victims of some type of sexual violence. The figure is close to doubling the 23 cases that were registered in 2022. In Murcia, 205 complaints were registered, 12% more. Cartagena, for its part, investigated up to 83 complaints of sexual crimes. Águilas, Alcantarilla, Alhama, Caravaca, Cieza, Molina de Segura, San Pedro, Las Torres, Totana, La Unión and Yecla also experienced an increase in this type of crime in this period, compared to Archena, Jumilla, Mazarrón, San Javier and Torre Pacheco, who managed to lighten the figures – the report only includes data from provincial capitals and municipalities with more than 20,000 inhabitants.

At the national level, sexual crimes also maintain the trend of “strong increase” that began especially in 2014. In 2023, nearly 20,000 sexual attacks were reported nationwide, 15.1% more than in the previous year. previous exercise. Interior relates this rebound to “the active policies of raising awareness and reducing social and personal tolerance against this type of criminal acts.” These measures, he emphasizes, translate “into a greater willingness of victims to report them,” which reduces the rate of underreporting that, he believes, existed until now.

The advance of cybercrimes

Source: Ministry of the Interior

The advance of cybercrimes

Source: Ministry of the Interior

The advance of cybercrimes

Source: Ministry of the Interior

A pretty bloody year

Sexual crimes are not the only ones that register an increasing trend. Last year, crime continued to escalate. Over the past year, the State Security Forces and Corps recorded up to 74,187 criminal infractions – crimes and misdemeanors – in the Region, an average of 203 per day. The figure represents an increase of 8% compared to the crime recorded in the previous year, a rise somewhat greater than that recorded at the national level (5.9%).

Interior, in its report discriminates between conventional crime and cybercrime. In the case of the first, the Region now registers up to 3% more crimes and misdemeanors than in 2022. The increase in conventional crime figures last year is explained, in part, by the increase in car thefts. , homicides and drug trafficking. In 2023, the Community witnessed up to 958 vehicle thefts, according to the Interior balance. The figure represents a rebound of up to 23.8%. In that same period, 2,069 robberies with violence and intimidation were reported in the Region, 3.5% more.

2023 also ended as a particularly bloody year in the Region, which recorded up to fifteen completed crimes, almost double that of the previous year (8). Between January and December there were also 64 attempted homicides, 25.5% more. The fight against drug trafficking also resulted, last year, in 8.5% more cases, reaching more than half a thousand complaints.

Despite the general increase in crime in the Community, a slight improvement was perceived in some crimes. One of the crimes that decreased the most last year in the Region was kidnappings. Only four cases were recorded. Robberies at homes and businesses also hit less hard.

The rise in 'cybercrimes' is, however, especially significant and reaches 37.4%. The Region of Murcia is the second community that has seen the activity of cybercriminals grow the most, with more than 12,200 computer scams that were reported.