The statistics on criminal offenses that the Ministry of the Interior has released this week based on the complaints processed by all police forces confirm a very marked recovery in thefts carried out in the city of Barcelona. According to these data, referring to the first six months of the year – therefore not yet accounting for the criminal acts known during the months of July, August and September – they indicate a 17.3% increase in this type of crime in the Catalan capital compared to to the same period in 2022.
Theft is the criminal offense that historically breaks all security statistics, especially in Barcelona, ??where the large influx of tourists acts as a powerful magnet that strongly attracts the friends of others.
Thefts represent almost half of the criminal acts reported in this city, specifically 47.5% or, in other words, 42,655 out of a total of 89,792. There are almost ten thefts on average per hour between January 1 and June 30.
However, these figures are still far from those recorded in 2019, a pre-pandemic year, of tourist records and also absolute records in terms of citizen insecurity in Barcelona.
The numbers of thefts in this first half of 2023 practically coincide with those of the same months in 2017, but are still well below the 56,015 recorded from January to June 2019, a year that, like 2018, closed exceeding widely the 100,000 annual thefts.
Curiously, the statistics presented this week by the Ministry of the Interior, which point to increases in almost all types of crime in Barcelona, ??show a slight decrease (6.2%) in serious and less serious crimes of injuries and riots, a a phenomenon that is very topical these days as a consequence of the incidents that have occurred in recent weeks in various Catalan municipalities, in some cases coinciding with the celebration of popular festivals.
