23.2% of people residing in the municipalities of the metropolitan area of ??Barcelona claim to have suffered at least one criminal act in 2022, whether it was a theft of a purse or purse, against their vehicles, or attacks and threats with components of hatred and discrimination, among others.

This is what emerges from the Vicitimization Survey in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, prepared by the Institut Metròpoli in coordination with the Barcelona City Council based on 7,838 interviews carried out between February 13 and April 12, 2023. This survey, with a very significant sample and a consolidated trajectory, has been made public two days after the Ministry of the Interior presented another survey of similar characteristics, the Public Security Survey of Catalonia, which raised to 32.4% the number of Catalans who claim to have suffered a crime in 2022, almost 5 points more than three years ago, especially because it has taken into account the increase in scams.

Returning to the metropolitan survey, the 23.2% of confessed victims of a crime in 2022 represents an increase of 1.7 percentage points compared to the previous edition, when the victimization rate was 21.6%, and stands in values ??similar to those before the pandemic, which were between 24% and 27% the two years before the outbreak of covid-19.

The survey shows that the proportion of victims is higher among the population living in large cities. Thus, 26.7% of residents in Barcelona have felt victimized by at least one crime, a fact that places the Catalan capital as having the highest victimization rate in the entire metropolitan area last year.

In the Besòs area, 22.3% of the population has felt like a victim of at least one crime. In this area, the highest victimization occurs among the residents of Santa Coloma de

Gramenet (23.6%). Curiously, the latest police statistics on known and reported events offer a very different result, since Santa Coloma is one of the Catalan cities that registers better security values ??compared to previous years. Badalona follows as the most victimized city in this metropolitan area (21.9%).

In the Llobregat area, the overall victimization rate reaches 22.2%, although in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat it rises to 26.6% and in Cornellà de Llobregat the proportion of victims is 17.6%.

The survey also asked the population’s opinion about the police services that operate in the metropolitan area (Local Police and Mossos d’Esquadra). On a scale of 0 to 10, the rating of the Mossos improves, with an average of 7.16, and of the local police, with 6.69.

According to the survey, 4.5% of women who have suffered an attack declare that it was for discriminatory reasons, whether due to physical appearance (0.8%), language and skin color or place of birth. (0.8%). In the case of men, attacks and intimidation due to discrimination were somewhat lower (3.7%).

Personal security continues to prevail: 15.6% of those surveyed felt they were victims of a crime against them. The majority of events in this sense are non-violent (10.7%), such as robbery or attempted theft of a bag or wallet. Women are the main victims of acts against personal safety (16.5% compared to 14.7% of men).

Regarding violent acts, women continue to be the main victims of sexual assaults.

The vehicle is the second most common area of ??metropolitan victimization: 7.8% of people say they have been victims of crimes against the vehicle, such as theft of accessories or attempted theft of a car or motorcycle.

Safety in metropolitan neighborhoods receives an average rating of 6.30 points (a figure very similar to that of 2022, which was 6.32 points), while safety in cities is 5.80 points.

Antonio Balmón, executive vice president of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), has stated that this institution continues to work to reinforce security in metropolitan municipalities, and remembers that security policies cannot be limited to the local level, but rather have to weave on a metropolitan scale.

“For the AMB, security and coexistence are priorities and, in this sense, we have been working for some time, for example, to improve lighting in public spaces, as in the case of the Molinet park in Santa Coloma de Gramenet or the Turonet in Cerdanyola del Vallès, which have new lighting focused on people and their safety.” Another example is the intermediate stops service on demand of the AMB’s Nitbús, “a service designed especially for women and minors.”