Spanish Interior Ministry statistics have revealed that the country saw a large increase in crime last year, with the number of rapes rising by nearly 34 per cent as other sex assaults rose by over 50 per cent.

Overall, crime grew by 18.8 per cent across Spain but some crimes saw very large increases, such as sexual assaults involving penetration which increased by 53.2 per cent compared to 2022, and rapes which increased by 33.9 per cent.

According to the Interior Ministry, the increase in sex crimes “must be related, in part, to the active policies of awareness and reduction of social tolerance against this type of crime, which translates into a greater willingness of victims to report and reduces the levels of underreporting existing in these criminal types,” the newspaper El Mundoreports.

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