The islands of Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, and Gran Canaria, in Las Palmas, make up the fourth province in Spain with the most crimes against sexual freedom in proportion to its population, with 6.7 per 10,000 inhabitants, figures only surpassed by the Balearic Islands (8.1), Navarra (7.8), and Lleida (7)
Almost 94% of victims of sexual violence in Spain are women and minors, while more than 93% of those arrested for these crimes against sexual freedom in Spain are men.
These are figures from the Report on Crimes Against Sexual Freedom, which was released this Monday by the Ministry of the Interior with data from 2024, and which confirms "the overrepresentation of women in sexual victimization," the high incidence of this violence against children, and the "strong masculinization of perpetrators" of these crimes.
In 2024, 22,846 crimes against sexual freedom were reported, 4.68% more than the previous year and 66% more than six years ago. Six out of ten crimes (59.85%) were sexual assaults without penetration and 22.86% were rapes.
The majority of victims are women and girls
These events affected 22,778 victims, 85.69% of them women (19,518) and 8.17% underage males (1,861). The remainder, 1,385, were adult men.
Four out of ten victims, 41.2% of the total (almost 9,400), were under 18 years old
Thus, the majority of victims are women and children, girls and adolescents.
They were between 0 and 13 years old, 4,196 victims; between 14 and 15, 2,872; between 16 and 17, 2,325. Victims aged 18 to 30 were 6,956The largest proportion of male victimizations occurs in the 0 to 13-year-old group, where 75.62% of victims are girls and 24.26% are boys. From 14 to 15, 16.64% are also boys, as are 15.7% of victims aged 16 to 17
The Interior Ministry indicates that the number of male victims is high in crimes such as corruption of minors (42.5%), sexual provocation (35.6%), exhibitionism (30.1%), grooming (26.8%), and child pornography (26.6%).
Regarding nationality, 73% of the victims were Spanish and 27% were foreign. Of the victims with other nationalities, 55.5% were from America and 20% from the EU.
The majority of sexual aggressors are men and Spanish
A total of 14,375 people were arrested or investigated for sexual freedom offenses in 2024, 93.13% of whom were men and 6.87% were women. A total of 1,206 were between 14 and 17 years old (8.39%).This "strong masculinization" of sexual offense authorship is constant across all age groups, with the highest percentage of female offenders occurring in the 14 to 17 age group (in which 12.19% were girls)
Six out of ten arrested or investigated individuals were Spanish and 39.24% were foreign. 7.65% were from Morocco and 4.7% from Colombia.
5% of crimes take place within a couple (gender-based violence); 5.72% occur within the family (2.11% of victims are children), and in 14.72% there is another type of relationship between victim and aggressor, such as friendship or a work relationship. In 74.56% of cases, the link between victim and aggressor is unknown.
According to the report, 83.3% of sexual offenses were solved, the highest percentage in recent years.
More sexual assaults in summer and early autumn
The Interior Ministry has identified relevant characteristics regarding the place and time when assaults occur. A marked seasonality of these crimes is observed, with clearly higher figures in the summer months and early autumn.
Housing is where most sexual violence is perpetrated (47.06% of offenses), followed by communication routes (19.38%), facilities (12.37%), establishments (10.73%), open spaces (5.97%), and means of transport (2.13%).
Barcelona and Madrid are the provinces where the most crimes against sexual freedom were registered, 3,276 and 3,212, respectively. Continuing the list are Valencia (1,327), Alicante (1,092), the Balearic Islands (997), Málaga (908), and Murcia (890)By autonomous communities, Catalonia (with 4,589 cases), Andalusia (3,453), the Community of Madrid (3,212), and the Valencian Community (2,679) are those that account for the largest absolute number of known crimes, concentrating more than half of the total.
If we look at the rate of crimes against sexual freedom per 10,000 inhabitants, the provinces with the highest figures are the Balearic Islands (8.1 per 10,000), Navarre (7.8), Lleida (7), and Las Palmas (6.7). The national average stands at 4.7.
