14.4Ages 21 to 30: the group with most convictions per head
In 2025 there were 7.4 adults with a final criminal conviction per 1,000 inhabitants aged 18 and over. The highest rate was in the 21–30 age group: 14.4 per 1,000, almost twice the average.
This is the well-known age–crime curve: convictions cluster in early adulthood and become rarer with age. Life-course criminology explains it through the turning points that come with age (work, a partner); the figure fits that idea, but it does not say why any given person stops offending.
Theory: Life courseIn the archive: Vegeta, Tony Soprano, Frank Lucas
INE · Estadística de la Población Condenada: Adulta / Menor de edad (nota de prensa, 14-7-2026) · 2025 · People entered in the Central Register of Convicted Persons in 2025 for offenses committed in 2025 or in earlier years; these are not only offenses from that year.
Sexual offences: 97.6% of those convicted are men
In 2025, 4,531 adults with a final conviction for offences against sexual freedom were entered in the Central Register of Sex Offenders, 15.1% more than the year before. 97.6% were men and 2.4% women.
That almost everyone convicted of sexual violence is a man is consistent with the claim that this violence rests on gendered power relations. The statistic does not measure those relations: it shows who is convicted, not why they offend.
Theory: Patriarchy and crimeIn the archive: Commander Waterford, Martin Burney, Gaston
INE · Estadística de la Población Condenada: Adulta / Menor de edad (nota de prensa, 14-7-2026) · 2025 · The rise in convictions may also reflect more reporting and legal changes, not just more offenses.
48 women killed by a partner or ex-partner in 2025
In 2025, 48 women in Spain were killed in gender-based violence by their partners or ex-partners. 37 of them (77.1%) had not made a prior report.
Patriarchy theory reads these killings not as isolated outbursts but as the extreme end of a structure of domination within the couple. The prior-report figure also shows that most of this violence never reaches the system before the end; the figure alone does not prove the structural explanation.
Theory: Patriarchy and crimeIn the archive: Commander Waterford, Martin Burney, Gaston
Delegación del Gobierno contra la Violencia de Género · Ficha estadística de víctimas mortales, año 2025 (act. 23-4-2026) · 2025 · Provisional data: as of April 23, 2026, 2 cases from 2025 were still under investigation, so the figure may change. “Prior report” includes all matters referred to the court (including injury reports and police action taken ex officio).
Seven in ten young people do not come back
Of the young people who completed a youth justice programme or measure in Catalonia in 2015, 32.7% reoffended during follow-up to 31 December 2019 (4.5 years on average). The rate was 39.4% for those aged 14 and 15 and 28.2% for those aged 16 and 17.
This fits Moffitt's distinction: most young offenders stop, as the "adolescence-limited" path predicts, and those who start earlier reoffend more, like the persistent path. It is a single Catalan cohort; it does not prove that there are exactly two types.
Theory: Developmental dual taxonomyIn the archive: Ramsay Bolton, Henry, Jim Stark
CEJFE (Generalitat de Catalunya) · Taxa de reincidència de justícia juvenil 2020 (Justidata 78, nov. 2023) · Cohorte 2015, seguimiento hasta 2019 · Catalonia only. Reoffending = being dealt with again by the juvenile justice system or entering the adult penal enforcement system for a new offense. Age groups as presented in the bulletin. This is the most recent edition published.
Eight in ten released prisoners do not return
Of the people released from prison in Catalonia in 2015, 21.1% were re-imprisoned for an offence committed after release, over a follow-up of up to five years (to 31 December 2019). It is the lowest rate in the 33 years of CEJFE's series.
This is consistent with the core idea of desistance: stopping offending is the most common outcome, even after prison. The study itself warns that the rate cannot be read as direct proof that prison policy caused the improvement.
Theory: DesistanceIn the archive: Jean Valjean, Zuko, Jaime Lannister
CEJFE (Generalitat de Catalunya) · Taxa de reincidència penitenciària 2020 (2023) · Cohorte 2015, seguimiento hasta 2019 · Catalonia only (the only Spanish prison system with such a long public reoffending series). It measures re-entry into prison, not any new offense. This is the most recent edition published.
Five or more prison terms: more than half reoffend
In the Catalan cohort released in 2015, prison recidivism was 12.3% among those in prison for the first time and 55.7% among those with five or more previous prison terms (overall rate: 21.1%).
This fits secondary deviance: each pass through the system may harden the label and the criminal identity. But the data are also compatible with the most persistent offenders having been different from the start; the correlation does not settle which reading is right.
Theory: Primary and secondary devianceIn the archive: Sweeney Todd, Mystique, Derek Vinyard
CEJFE (Generalitat de Catalunya) · Taxa de reincidència penitenciària 2020 (2023) · Cohorte 2015, seguimiento hasta 2019 · Catalonia only. Figures from the executive report (chart of specific rates).
Online fraud has grown sixfold in ten years
Police recorded 430,493 cyber-fraud offences in 2025, against 70,178 in 2016: a 513.4% increase. They account for 88.0% of all cybercrime and 17.4% of all recorded crime.
Routine activity theory predicts that crime follows opportunity: when shopping, banking and social life move online, targets and offenders meet there without a capable guardian. The Ministry itself links the figure to internet use and online shopping; the data do not show how many attempts fail or go unreported.
Theory: Routine activitiesIn the archive: Michael Myers, Pennywise, Anton Chigurh
Ministerio del Interior · Balance de Criminalidad, cuarto trimestre de 2025 · 2025 (frente a 2016) · Provisional data, pending consolidation. These are offenses known to the police.
One in five recorded offences is now a cybercrime
In 2025, 489,248 cybercrime offences were recorded, 19.8% of all crime and 5.3% more than in 2024, while conventional crime fell by 0.2%.
From a rational choice perspective, online crime offers an attractive calculation: many potential victims, little physical risk and a low perceived chance of arrest. The figure is consistent with that shift, but it records offences, not the decisions or calculations of those who commit them.
Theory: Rational choiceIn the archive: Walter White, R. Raskolnikov, Keyser Söze
Ministerio del Interior · Balance de Criminalidad, cuarto trimestre de 2025 · 2025 · Provisional data, pending consolidation.
Home burglaries fall by 8.3%
In 2025, 74,353 burglaries of homes were recorded, against 81,094 in 2024: an 8.3% decrease. Burglaries of homes, businesses and other premises as a whole fell by 9.1%.
Situational crime prevention holds that making the target harder (locks, alarms, surveillance) reduces this kind of crime. The fall is compatible with that idea, but the report does not explain its causes and a single year is not enough to credit any specific measure.
Theory: Situational crime preventionIn the archive: Harry and Marv, The Professor, Hans Gruber
Ministerio del Interior · Balance de Criminalidad, cuarto trimestre de 2025 · 2025 · Provisional data, pending consolidation.
Drug trafficking: a figure that mostly measures the police
In 2025, 22,731 drug-trafficking offences were recorded, 5.5% more than in 2024. The Ministry itself warns that this offence is hardly ever reported by the public, so the figure is "in fact an indicator of police activity".
This is the argument of critical criminology: many statistics show not how much crime there is, but where and at whom the control system chooses to look. Here the source admits it; that does not mean every police figure works the same way.
Theory: Critical criminologyIn the archive: Gordon Gekko, Noah Cross, Daniel Plainview
Ministerio del Interior · Balance de Criminalidad, cuarto trimestre de 2025 · 2025 · Provisional data. The Balance de Criminalidad links the increase to specific plans such as the Special Security Plan for the Campo de Gibraltar. The English quotation is our own translation.
Spain: 0.72 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants
In 2024 the police in Spain recorded 0.72 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. Within the EU, the rate was 0.83 in Germany, 1.28 in France and 0.57 in Italy; the highest were Lithuania (2.63) and Latvia (2.40).
Institutional anomie theory was developed to explain why some countries have far more homicide than others, depending on how much weight they give economic success over family, school or politics. The comparison is consistent with looking at national factors, but it does not prove that cause: differences in recording between countries also matter.
Theory: Institutional anomieIn the archive: Jordan Belfort, Bobby Axelrod, Logan Roy
Eurostat · Police-recorded offences by offence category (crim_off_cat), homicidio intencionado · 2024 · Eurostat warns that police figures are not fully comparable across countries (different laws and recording practices). The table does not provide an aggregate EU rate. Retrieved via the Eurostat API (updated April 29, 2026).
Spain imprisons 121.8 people per 100,000 inhabitants
In 2024 there were 59,226 people in prison in Spain: 121.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate was 70.5 in Germany, 107.7 in Italy and 117.5 in France.
The political economy of punishment argues that the use of prison depends on social and economic factors, not only on how much crime there is. That countries with similar levels of violence imprison at such different rates is consistent with that thesis, although these figures do not isolate the causes.
Theory: Political economy of punishmentIn the archive: Alcaide Norton, Percy Wetmore, Amon Göth
Eurostat · Prison capacity and number of persons held (crim_pris_cap) · 2024 · Total for Spain according to Eurostat. The Instituciones Penitenciarias website could not be queried automatically, which is why Eurostat is used. Retrieved via the Eurostat API (updated April 29, 2026).
571 hate incidents over sexual orientation or gender identity
In 2025 the police investigated 2,417 hate offences and incidents, 23.6% more than in 2024 and the highest figure since 2014. Those linked to sexual orientation and gender identity numbered 571, the second-largest category after racism and xenophobia (934).
Queer criminology stresses that LGBTQ people appear in the penal system mainly as victims of stigma, not as a threat. The figure is consistent with that view; as these are recorded incidents, a rise may also reflect more reporting, not only more attacks.
Theory: Queer criminologyIn the archive: Scar, Jafar, Ursula
Ministerio del Interior · Informe sobre la evolución de los delitos e incidentes de odio en España 2025 (nota oficial, 3-6-2026) · 2025 · Figures taken from the Ministry’s official note presenting the report; the full PDF is under Balances e informes 2025 on interior.gob.es.
Official sources only, each figure as its source gives it, with its period. Reviewed on 12 October 2026. A figure is compatible with a theory; it does not prove it.