Island village tops Spain´s crime list

ESCORCA, a tiny Majorcan village of just 307 inhabitants, whose attractions include Lluc monastery, the Island's spiritual heartland, has the highest crime rate in Spain! Last year, 260 infractions of the law were registered in the village, crimes either successfully carried out or stopped in the attempt. Pro rata, this figure can be interpreted as 846 crimes per 1000 inhabitants, a level 18 times higher than the Spanish national average, putting Escorca at the top of the national “black list”. Details were revealed by central government as part of a response to a Parliamentary question raised by various members of the Socialist party who were investigating the municipalities of Spain where delinquency exceeded the national average in 2003. So far as Escorca is concerned, the explanation may lie in the number of thefts and attempted robberies from cars belonging to the large number of tourists who go to Escorca annually to visit the viewing points at the Sanctuary of Lluc. The area has a very low population density. Central government reports also showed that a total of 798 municipalities of the 8'108 existing in Spain exceeded the national average crime rate in 2003 which stood at 46.9 infractions of the law for every 1'000 inhabitants. Following down the list after Escorca, the towns with the highest crime rate pro rata the local population were Fontioso in Burgos, Olmeda de la Cuesta and Olmedilla de Eliz in Cuenca, and Almadrones, Monasterio and Tordelrabano in Guadalajara; all of these with more than 400 legal infractions for every 1000 inhabitants. The provinces of Spain which laid claim to the largest number of municipalities which exceeded the national average crime rate, were Valencia with 96 municipalities, Burgos with 63, and Alicante with 53. At the other end of the scale, the provinces of Asturias, La Coruña, Lugo, Orense, Gerona and Lerida encompassed not one of the 798 municipalities where the average national crime rate was exceeded in 2003.