Sexual offenses have accounted for almost 10% of PS investigations over the past decade.

Almost 10% of the investigations carried out by the Judicial Police (PJ) between 2013 and 2022 are related to sexual crimes, for a total of 31,950 investigations, the Deputy National Director Carlos Fariña reported this Thursday.

According to data presented at the “Discovery of Sexual Crimes” conference at the SP headquarters in Lisbon, the highest number of investigations related to sexual crimes occurred in 2020, when 4,473 investigations were registered, while the year with the lowest number of investigations was registered in 2013 year – 2372 people.

The peak of PJ activity on this issue in 2020 was not in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, as there was an exponential increase in investigations related to child pornography offences, totaling 2,112, almost half of this year’s surveys. have been associated with sexual offenses in online contexts, likely exacerbated by periods of public isolation due to the pandemic.

However, the most common crime in judicial investigations over the past decade has been child sexual abuse, with a total of 13,030, with some stability in these statistics: in 2013, 1,227 investigations were carried out, and in 2022, 1,264 investigations were opened . Child sexual abuse stands out among other sexual crimes, namely child pornography (6,576) and rape (5,180).

In 2023, statistics from the first three quarters already indicate 2,479 victims of sexual crimes, of which 2,056 are women and 423 are men. Of these victims in SP investigations opened between January and September, the vast majority (1,842) were under 18 years of age (1,498 women and 344 men), while the number of older persons was 637 (558 women and 79 men).

However, this year, PJ data shows that the majority of victims were in the eight to 13 age group, with 876 victims, about 35%, followed by the 14 to 17 age group, with 636, or 26%. victims. Family relationships between the aggressor and the victim were present in 51% of cases already investigated in 2023.

Regarding the age of the aggressors, there is a large balance: the age groups 31-40 and 41-50 each make up 21%, followed by the age groups 21-30 and 51-60, both with 14%.

Statistics also show that child sexual abuse is a crime committed almost exclusively by men, who make up 96% of abusers.

These findings are also present in the case of rape, in which 98% of the aggressors are men and the victims are almost always women (92%). By age, rape victims were over 18 years of age in 68% of cases, while 32% of rapes were committed against minors.