The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has presented the ‘Report on the evolution of hate crimes in Spain 2022’ during the meeting of the 2nd Monitoring Commission of the II Action Plan to Fight Hate Crimes 2022- 2024.
The State Security Forces and Bodies investigated a total of 1,869 criminal offenses and hate incidents in Spain in 2022, which represents an increase of 3.7 percent compared to 2021. This is included in the ‘Report on the evolution of hate crimes in Spain 2022′ , presented this Wednesday by the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Hate crimes due to racism and xenophobia, with 755 incidents, are the most numerous and represent 43.5% of all complaints. They are followed by hate crimes committed in the fields of sexual orientation and gender identity (459 facts), while in third place are crimes of ideology (245 facts).
Regarding the interannual variation, hate crimes due to discrimination based on sex and gender are those that suffered the greatest increase, 76.6% more than in 2021. The rise in crimes due to aporophobia also stands out, which grew by 70%, and due to antigypsyism, which increased by 22.2%.
In the comparison with 2021, crimes due to generational discrimination (57.1%), due to illness (47.6%), religious beliefs or practices (25.4%) and ideology (24.8%) decreased significantly .
Regarding the criminal typology of these hate acts, injuries (423) and threats (338) stand out first, followed by injuries (116) and damages (106).
By autonomous communities, the Basque Country concentrates the highest number of complaints (407), followed by Catalonia (253), the Community of Madrid (237) and Andalusia (207).
Profiles of victims and those investigated and arrested
The report presented indicates that the State Security Forces clarified 63% of the facts in 2022 and detained or investigated 838 people.
Those most affected by this type of crime are males (59.4%), while the age group most affected is between 26 and 40 years (31.3%). Minors constitute 12.1% of all victimizations.
Regarding the distribution of victims according to their nationality, the first place is occupied by Spanish women, with 60.9% of the total registered victimizations. Within the set of victims of foreign nationality, those from Morocco registered the highest number (9.9%), ahead of Colombia (3.3%) and Senegal (2.1%).
The number of people arrested/investigated for hate crimes and incidents amounts to 838 people, mostly male (79%) and between the ages of 26 and 40, representing 27.6% of the total.
Action Plan against Hate Crimes
During the second meeting of the Monitoring Commission for the II Action Plan to Combat Hate Crimes 2022-2024, the minister highlighted “the transversal approach” of the plan, which has improved cooperation between the institutions involved and the third sector “and has put the victim in the center of attention, both to ensure their protection and to contribute to the reparation of the crime.”
Along these lines, Grande-Marlaska has specified that reparation should not be understood from a solely material point of view. “We must think about moral compensation, which may be even more important for the victim, for having attacked her own dignity, her freedom or free development under equal conditions and opportunities”, she has stated.
In his speech, the minister also underlined “the great involvement” of the Security Forces and Corps in preventing and fighting hate crimes and expressly referred to the creation of “specific and specialized police groups”, such as the Violent Extremism and Hate Team, from the National Police, and the Hate Crime Response Teams, from the Civil Guard.
At this point, Grande-Marlaska has given an account of the agreement signed between the Ministry of the Interior and the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces to channel collaboration and coordination between the National Police, Civil Guard and local police in aspects such as identification, collection and coding of racist, xenophobic or discriminatory incidents and crimes, as well as guaranteeing proper attention and assistance to victims of hate crimes.
