Balearics has the highest crime rate in Spain but most people claim they feel safe

PALMA
WITH a crime rate of 43.27 per 1'000 inhabitants, the Balearics has the highest level of crime in Spain but only nine percent of the local population claim to feel insecure.

The crime figures for 2008 were released by the Spanish Home Office yesterday, but a recent study carried out into antisocial behaviour and people's perception of crime by a Madrid university discovered that, while the vast majority of Spain believe Madrid to have the highest crime rate, only two percent consider the Balearics to be the least secure.

Ironically, the level of crime in the region of Madrid is 28.53 per 1'000 inhabitants, significantly lower than here in the Balearics where just nine percent of the population claim to be worried about crime.

However, while most of us living here, 55 percent, feel safe and secure, the Madrid university investigation also discovered that the credit crunch is considered to be primarily to blame for escalating crime in the Balearics.

32 percent of the population blame rising unemployment for the increase in crimes like shops and household robberies. But, while most of the Balearic residents do not consider to be at risk to crime, antisocial behaviour, street drinking and vandalism for example, is becoming a worrying issue with eight out of ten residents aware of the growing problem.