Joshua Parfitt
VALENCIA city registered 53,358 crimes throughout last year – around 146 crimes a day.
The crime rate rose 36.3% in Valencia between 2020-2021, which made the fastest rate among major Spanish cities.
Minor crimes of sexual abuse rose sharpest with a 67.2% increase on 2020 (244 to 408)
Rape of an aggressive nature rose 48.8%, with 61 cases documented throughout 2021.
Thefts grew 62.4% to jump from 12,229 to 19,863 recorded last year.
Other criminals activities that saw a rise include burglaries (50.9%), grievous bodily harm and brawls (46.1%), robbery (41%) and murders (40%).
Crimes that saw a fall include kidnapping (-50%) and drug trafficking (-13.2%), according to figures from Spain’s Ministerio del Interior.
“Valencia is the big city with the highest increase in citizen insecurity – it’s grown more than double in Zaragoza, Madrid, Malaga or Barcelona,” said Maria Jose Catala, spokesperson for the opposition Partido Popular in Valencia.
Catala added she was ‘extremely worried’ about the increase.
Valencia’s 36.3% increase in crimes is well above the 16% increase across the Valencian Community and a 10.8% national rise from 2020-2021.
Valencia city’s councillor for Citizen Security, Aaron Cano, said that despite rising crime Valencia is a ‘safe city’.
He said that crimes of drug trafficking and burglaries were at their lowest levels in the last five years.
He added that car thefts fell 24.2% while violent robberies fell 16.4%.
“The ministry’s figures corroborate that crimes affecting citizen security are about the same as they were in 2018 and 2019, growing as newer crimes of Internet frauds and other crimes that don’t directly threaten resident’s safety,” Cano said.
Valencian figures from the Policia Local show that cyber crimes rose 18.2%.
Spain’s government delegate in the Valencian Community, Gloria Calero, said the region still enjoyed the 2nd-lowest criminality in all of Spain: 44.5 crimes per 1,000 people.
