Crime goes down, fanaticism and corruption go up in Spain

BASED on a report presented by Attorney General, Consuelo Madrigal, at the Supreme Court in an act presided by the king, the number of criminal proceedings registered in 2014 went down 6 per cent in comparison to the previous year, but jihadist terrorism investigations doubled that of 2013.

Homicide numbers went up; 51 per cent of homicides were related to attacks on heritage, followed by ‘crimes against life and body’, representing a total of 18 per cent. Sexual offences against minors went down 37 per cent, while those against adults went up 6.7 per cent.

The report also specifies that the National High Court opened 106 investigations for jihadist terrorism in 2014, double the amount of the year before. Therefore it is requesting a higher number of special forces to counteract the high threat that extremism represents. Terrorist investigations have left ETA in the background, as the document states that it “has begun an irreversible extinction process”.

The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office opened 37 corruption investigations, nearly double those from the previous year, thus emphasising the lack of means and personnel that the unit has to deal with. A major part of the crimes reported were against the Public Administration.

Cybercrime and electric power theft represent two types of crime continuously on the rise, the first due to the continuous evolution of technology and the second as one more of the many consequences the financial crisis has brought with it.