A circulating topic note claiming that minors appear as offenders in 20 per cent of sexual offence cases does not stand up to scrutiny against official Spanish sources. According to the latest report from the Ministerio del Interior the share of 14 to 17 years old suspects among all persons recorded for sexual offences was 8.39 per cent.
The report published by the Ministry of the Interior, Informe sobre delitos contra la libertad sexual clearly distinguishes between victims and alleged offenders. In the category personas detenidas o investigadas — that is, persons arrested or listed as suspects — a total of 14,375 cases were recorded in 2024. Of these, 1,206 involved the 14-to-17 age group. These official figures are the relevant benchmark for the proportion of minors among suspects and are well below the claimed 20 per cent.
At the same time, the Fiscalía General del Estado in its Memoria 2025 warns of an increase in young people's involvement in sexual offences and describes the trend as worrying. This assessment concerns the trend in recent years and the growing significance of certain offence types. However, it does not confirm a blanket figure of 20 per cent across all sexual offences. Such a figure would require a differently defined basis of comparison — for example, limiting the count to specific offences or analysing final convictions rather than investigation figures.
It is also important to distinguish statistically between offence types: in some cases, such as online abuse or depictions of sexual violence against minors, the proportions of young people among offenders or victims can differ greatly from the overall figures. However, according to the available primary data for 2024, the overall share of minors among all alleged offenders in sexual offences in Spain remains in single digits.
Verifiable official figures show that minors accounted for 8.39 per cent of suspects in sexual offences in 2024 (1,206 of 14,375 personas detenidas o investigadas). The prosecution service's Memoria 2025 supports the view that the trend requires monitoring, but provides no evidence for a nationwide 20 per cent figure. Without a precise definition of the population being counted, the claim cannot be substantiated.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).