RASI – Annual Internal Security Report 2025
Annually, it is the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the Internal Security System to process, consolidate, analyse, and disseminate integrated crime statistics and prepare the Annual Internal Security Report, which has now been published.
In 2025 there were 365,802 criminal reports, corresponding to an increase of 3.1% compared to 2024 (+10,924 reports).
The crime of theft, in its various forms, continues to be the one with the highest number of reports, followed by fraud, in its various types, and traffic crimes.
Domestic violence against a spouse or similar (-2.2%) and simple voluntary bodily injury (+0.1%) remain the criminal types with the highest number of reports.
Driving a vehicle with an alcohol content equal to or greater than 1.2g/L continues to be the third most reported crime, although it registered a significant increase of 23%.
Regarding the geographical distribution of crime, the highs in Coimbra and Leiria stand out, both with increases greater than 10%. Also noteworthy are the districts of Lisbon and Porto, which registered increases close to 4%. Regarding decreases, the Azores Autonomous Region (-8.8%) and Portalegre (-4.7%) stand out.
VIOLENT AND SERIOUS CRIME – Regarding violent and serious crime, defined as crime that has as its common denominator physical or psychological violence and that causes a strong feeling of insecurity, there were a total of 14,149 reports, which corresponds to a variation of -1.6%.
The violent and serious crimes that stood out the most were robbery on public roads, snatch theft, resistance and coercion against a public official, and sexual extortion, which together represent about 70% of the total of this type of crime.
Among the violent and serious crimes, the decreases in robberies of banks or other credit establishments (-50%), robberies at gas stations (-33.8%), robberies on public transport (-18.5%), and robberies of residences (-15.5%) stand out.
Conversely, in violent and serious crime, noteworthy increases were seen in robberies of jewellery stores (+26.3%), resistance to coercion against an official (+15.8%), other extortions (+12.7%), and sexual extortion (+6.8%). Also noteworthy is the crime of rape (+6.4%), which maintains its upward trend, showing the highest value of the decade, and completed manslaughter (+10.1%).
Regarding violent and serious crime, decreases were observed in Lisbon (-3.4%) and Porto (-8.4%). Increases were seen in the districts of Braga (+11.7%) and Leiria (+11.4%).
In the context of crimes against sexual freedom and self-determination, those that registered the highest number of investigations initiated and arrests in 2025 were crimes of child sexual abuse, rape, and child pornography. It was found, similarly to what occurred in previous years that the crime of child sexual abuse is perpetrated, for the most part, by male individuals (90.6%), who take advantage of family relationships (49.5%), especially with victims between 8 and 13 years old.
Also in the crime of rape, the preponderance of a relationship of acquaintance/family between the perpetrator and the victim (52%) was recorded, with the latter being predominantly female (90.3%), in the age range between 21 and 40 years.
Group crime, defined as the occurrence of a criminal act committed by three or more suspects, regardless of the type of crime, the specificities that may exist in the group, or the level of participation of each participant, shows a decrease of 1.2%.
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY- which includes the practice, by an individual aged between 12 and 16 years, of an act qualified by law as a crime, under the terms provided for by the Educational Guardianship Law, also registered a decrease of 1.3% in the number of occurrences.
SCHOOL SAFETY – Regarding school safety, there were 8,133 incidents (+14.1%), of which 5,694 are of a criminal nature (-0.9%). Among the incidents, the most prominent were offenses against physical integrity (2,198), thefts (931), sexual offenses (182), robberies (120), and 114 incidents of use/possession of weapons.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE – Domestic violence, as in previous years, shows a slight decrease (-1.9%). However, it continues to present very high participation rates (29,644), with an increase in violence against minors (+8.6%). The crime of domestic violence against a spouse or similar continues to be the one with the highest number of registered cases among the crimes involved (25,357).
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION – Regarding crimes related to illegal immigration, which encompass 6 types of crimes, notably aiding illegal immigration, marriage of convenience, violation of entry bans, association for aiding illegal immigration, recruitment of illegal labor, and other related crimes, there was an increase of 862 occurrences, equivalent to an increase of 251.3% compared to the previous year, also accompanied by an increase in the number of defendants charged.
There continues to be a prevalence of victims of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation, especially in the areas of agriculture on seasonal properties, but also in construction, livestock farming, the textile industry, restaurants, sports activities, and domestic work. In the year 2025, the Observatory on Trafficking in Human Beings reported 307 cases (205 victims validated as such).
DRUG TRAFFICKING
Regarding drug trafficking and related crimes, there was a 10.1% increase in registered crimes, as well as a rise in the number of seizures (+7.4%) and the number of arrests (+6.1%). There was also a significant increase in seizures of hashish (+102.6%). The most consumed and trafficked drugs internally continue to be marijuana—whether in the form of hashish or leaves—, cocaine, heroin, and synthetic drugs, with trafficking and consumption being most prevalent in the districts of Lisbon and Porto.
The national territory has specific geographical characteristics that facilitate the carrying out of trafficking operations of these substances, developed by criminal organizations of a transnational nature, which introduce significant quantities of narcotic product into national territory, frequently with the collaboration of criminal groups of Portuguese origin, with the main objective of supplying the market of European countries.
CYBERCRIME – Regarding most cybercrime, there was a 13.4% increase in participated crime, when compared to the previous year. There continues to be a growth in cyberattacks, with noticeable technical evolution (with increasing use of artificial intelligence), sophistication, complexity and frequency, which mainly affect the sectors of Education and Research, Health and Public Administration.
The main cybercrimes investigated concern ransomware attacks, various forms of social engineering such as phishing and smishing, online scams, and account compromise (especially bank accounts).
CHILD PROOGRAPHY – Regarding the phenomenon of child pornography, there is an increase in the expression of this type of crime, related to the expansion of digital platforms and the dynamics of sharing illicit content. There is a prevalence of pornography distribution on communication channels and platforms, as well as on storage services such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Google Drive, and Mega.
ELECTRONIC PAYMENT MEASURES –
In crime associated with electronic payment methods, the main types of fraud/modus operandi identified in 2025 are: carding and skimming (counterfeiting and use of counterfeit cards or other payment devices, with associated money laundering); Phishing campaigns aimed at obtaining bank card data, combined with the caller ID spoofing technique, in which the criminal poses as an employee of a banking entity and requests confirmation of alleged suspicious transactions. There is a growing trend, following technological progress, the widespread shift to a digital economy, consumer behaviour, as well as the rapid identification and exploitation by criminal groups of vulnerabilities in the payment system and electronic money services.
In the cryptocurrency market, there has been an increase in fraud associated with fake platforms, driven by the online dissemination and promotion of this type of currency and the insufficient financial and digital literacy of the victims. The number of indictments and arrests for cybercrime increased, respectively +28.5% and +88.6%.
Crimes of counterfeiting/forgery of currency and passing counterfeit currency show a decrease of 31.6% compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, there was a 7.8% increase in seizures of banknotes (€ and USD), totalling €952,725 and USD20,489.
In the area of economic and financial crime, there was a 22% increase in the number of investigations initiated. The crime of money laundering showed the greatest growth, with an increase of approximately 42%, followed by active corruption (+17%). In the year 2025, there was a 49.6% increase in indictments and a 154% increase in arrests.
It was also verified that 893,744 actions of collaboration with judicial and administrative authorities were carried out.
WEAPONS AND EXPLOSIVES – Regarding inspection actions related to weapons and explosives, 3,604 inspection actions, searches and awareness campaigns were carried out. As a result of these operations, 9,552 firearms were seized, 7,692 firearms were surrendered or recovered, 170,227 rounds of ammunition and 47,553 kg of explosives were seized, with a total of 12,241 firearms and 2,466 bladed weapons being destroyed.
CRIME PREVENTION – In the context of crime prevention and strengthening security in society, the continuation of several general prevention programs stands out, which have resulted in community policing, especially with the most vulnerable groups, notably through the Safe School program, Support 65 – Seniors in Safety, Support for People with Disabilities, Safe Commerce, Safe Countryside, Animal Defense Line and Maritime Citizenship Program. Numerous specific prevention actions were also carried out, particularly on festive occasions or at events likely to generate a greater concentration of people, notably the operations “Safe Carnival”, “Safe Easter”, “Carnival 2025”, “Easter 2025”, “Safe Pilgrimage”, “Safe Summer”, “Christmas and New Year 2025/2026” and the crime prevention and enforcement campaign “Portugal Always Safe”.