Barcelona: 73% of crimes go unpunished and only 2 in 10 are reported

Barcelona: 73% of crimes go unpunished and only 2 in 10 are reported

Insecurity in Barcelona has reached a statistical blind spot. According to data gathered by Metrópoli Abierta and La Gaceta, more than 73% of crimes committed in the city go unsolved or never even lead to formal proceedings. But the most worrying figure is that barely two in ten victims go to the police to file a report. The rest simply write off the loss as the cost of living in a city that has normalized impunity.

Court backlogs and citizens giving up

Behind the low reporting rate there is not just apathy: there is a rational decision. As one analysis points out, justice in Spain moves at a snail's pace. A recent example: the courts in Seville are scheduling employment trials for 2030, which discourages any incivil procedure. A theft victim knows that, unless they need the report for an insurance claim, reporting is a waste of time. Prosecutors and police, overwhelmed, prioritize serious cases, leaving petty crime — the kind ordinary citizens suffer most — in an administrative limbo.

The 'Delictómetro' that challenges the official figures

While the city council boasts about falling crime, an app called 'Delictómetro' — whose website, delictometro.com, allows users to view incidents in real time — calls the official data into question. The discrepancy is so large that it has become a reference source for those who distrust the city hall's narrative. The broken windows effect has taken hold of the urban landscape: when one offense goes unpunished, the next one arrives with even more audacity.

A debate that dodges the real issue

The public debate has focused on blaming specific groups, but the core of the problem is not who commits crimes but why the system fails to respond. Meanwhile, crime is becoming normalized. With 73% impunity, the law stops being a deterrent and becomes an option. And when the option is not to report, the statistic disappears, but real insecurity keeps growing. The prediction is that, unless swift justice is reinforced and trust in reporting is restored, the spiral of impunity will keep advancing — and the 'Delictómetro' will keep setting records nobody wants to see.