In Spain, the debate on immigration, crime, and women’s safety is taking place in a context marked by significant growth in the foreign-born population and increasing public concern about trends in certain types of crime. This report examines that relationship with a clear objective: to provide a data-driven analysis that distinguishes between observable facts, interpretations, and potential statistical biases.
The document argues that the foreign population is overrepresented across several criminal justice indicators, including arrests, prison populations, and convictions, and that this overrepresentation is particularly evident in certain sexual offences. It also analyzes the territorial distribution of the phenomenon, observing that areas with a higher migrant presence tend to record higher crime rates, including sexual offences.
Regarding women’s safety, the report highlights that sexual offences disproportionately affect female victims and that analyzing these patterns requires methodological caution. It therefore distinguishes between official data (INE), academic studies, and police records, and points to limitations such as incomplete disaggregation by nationality, discrepancies between sources, and potential detection biases.
