The number of sex crimes committed by minors in Spain rose by 18% last year and teenagers were the perpetrators of 10% of all rapes reported to authorities, according to an official report published on Friday.
In 2022, In Spain, 11,699 people were investigated and detained for 19,013 sexual offences, an increase of almost 12% in both cases, according to the Interior Ministry’s 2022 ‘Report on crimes against sexual freedom in Spain’.
In Spain, under the Criminal Code that came into force last year, sexual offenses include sexual abuse, sexual assault and rape, in addition to child pornography.
According to the report, Last year, 1,031 minors between the ages of 14 and 17 committed sexual offenses, 18% more than in 2021.
Underage teenagers were responsible for 292 cases of rape, 10% of the total number of such crimes in Spain.
In total, 94.1% of the aggressors were male (90% in the case of minors).
As for the victims, 18,731 were identified, 86% of whom were girls or women.
About 8,300 victims were minors, which is 44.5% of the total (a percentage four points lower than in 2021).
Victims under the age of 13 represented 20.3% of the total and victims between 14 and 17 represented 23.9%.
This applies within the group of children under the age of 13 the report highlights that 2,393 were victims of some form of sexual assault or abuse and 458 were raped.
This is also the only age group where male victims occur in larger numbers.
The report also highlighted that in 2022, 632 cases of abuse, aggression and rape committed in a group (more or two people) reached the authorities, an increase of 10.3% compared to 2021.
In the specific case of gang rapes, authorities registered 218, 16% more than in 2021, and represented 5.4% of the total number of reported violations.
Regarding internet sexual crimes (“cyber sexual delinquency”), Spanish authorities identified 1,750 cases in 2022, six fewer than in 2021.
More than 80% of the victims of these types of crimes are minors and 535 were under the age of 13.
Last year, approximately 36% of “cybersexual delinquency” was related to child pornography, 25.8% to contact with minors under the age of 16, 11.9% to corruption of minors, 9.3% to sexual assault and abuse, and 7.4 % with intimidation.
On the last year, The Spanish Public Prosecution Service has repeatedly drawn attention to the increase in crimes committed by minors, especially sexual crimes.
When the country was in shock last March with news of rapes of girls by groups of boys, some under the age of 14, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which coordinates cases involving minors, warned Eduardo Esteban that since 2015 there has been a “surprising “increase in crimes against life and sexual freedom committed by minors.
Eduardo Esteban stated in statements to the EFE news agency that there are more and more children and adolescents who are turning to pornography on the Internet “as if it were a tutorial”, in a downplaying of sexual relations that could explain the increase in sexual relations. sexual assaults by minors.
Added to this “serious error” is the “absolute abandonment of sex education”, according to the prosecutor, for whom “there is really no sexual training for minors, who resort to alternative, less than desirable means, such as pornography”.
Another feature of these cases, according to the prosecutor, is the registration of the attacks.
“To the point where we wonder if this is the satisfaction they are looking for,” that is, to publicize what they have done, Eduardo Esteban said.
Source: DN
