In 2021        

Crime rate in the Autonomous Region of Madeira decreased when compared to the previous year and remained below the national average

With this press release, the Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) makes available the time series of justice updated with data from 2021. The information on this statistical domain is provided by the Directorate General for Justice Policy (DGPJ), which acts as the delegated entity of Statistics Portugal (INE).

Courts – Number of pending cases continues to fall                  

Data regarding the movement of cases in the 1^st instance judicial courts (not considering the data from courts of enforcement of sentences) in the district of Madeira indicate that, in 2021, the number of pending cases decreased by approximately 18.5% compared to 2020. On 31^st December 2021, the number of pending cases in those courts was 13.1 thousand (16.1 thousand in 2020).

In 2021, the number of completed cases (12.8 thousand) remained higher than the number of incoming cases (9.9 thousand). The favourable balance of about 3.0 thousand cases justifies the aforementioned decrease in pending cases (-18.5% compared to 2020), and throughout the 2015-2021 period, this type of cases successively decreased.

In 2021, there was a clear predominance of civil court proceedings in the 1^st instance judicial courts (cases related to debts, leases, divorces, inventories, insolvency, company recovery and traffic accidents, thus distinguished from criminal, labour and guardianship justice cases - those concerning minors). The share of civil cases in the total of incoming cases stood at 62.4% (6.2 thousand cases). In completed cases, this proportion was of 70.1% (9.0 thousand) and of 84.1% in pending cases (11.1 thousand). The number of incoming cases (7.3% in 2020) and of completed cases went up by 27.4%. Since the number of completed cases was higher than the number of incoming cases, the balance in 2021 stood at -2.8 thousand cases, thus accounting for the 20.5% reduction of pending cases over 2020.

The clearance rate (ratio between the number of completed cases and incoming cases) of the country’s courts of law in 2021 was 130.2%, increasing by 15.6 percentage points (pp) from the previous year (114.6%). The clearance rate of civil lawsuits (146.3%) exceeded that of the remaining lawsuits with criminal lawsuits having the lowest values (98.3%).

Concerning the average duration of completed proceedings in the 1^st instance judicial courts, the average duration of the civil lawsuit (the longest in the system) went up by nine months between 2020 and 2021, from 36 to 45 months, respectively. In the juvenile cases, the value remained unchanged and in the remaining cases, there was a decrease.

Accommodation, food service activities and similar accounted for most cases where the bankruptcy/insolvency was decreed

The number of incoming bankruptcy, insolvency and enterprise recovery cases (196) dropped by 2.5% while closed cases (209) rose by 13.0%, compared to 2020. It should also be noted that the number of completed cases was higher than the number of incoming cases, which resulted in a decrease of 28.3% in pending cases.

Regarding cases of bankruptcy/insolvency decreed, there was a 16.3% increase between 2020 and 2021. Regarding the type of person involved in the bankruptcy/insolvency decreed, in 2021, the total number of proceedings of natural persons was higher (76.9%) than that of legal persons (23.1%). It should be noted, however, that the total of natural person cases wins again relevance this year when compared to the figures reached in the other years of the time series.

With regard to bankruptcy/insolvency decreed, it can be seen that the class "Up to 4 999 euros" concentrated the largest share of cases (33.9%), followed by the class "Between 5 000 and 9 999 euros", with 29.6%. The other two classes, "Between €10,000 and €49,999" and "€50,000 or more", were the least important, accounting, in aggregate, for 36.6% of all cases. Compared to 2020, there were changes in the relevance of each class. In that year the class "Between 5 000 and 9 999 euros" represented 38.8% of all cases.

Considering the Classification of Economic Activity of the private legal entities involved in the insolvency proceedings decreed in 2021, 44.2% corresponded to accommodation, food service activities and similar and 23.3% to wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair.

Registries and Notary - Acts of registry and notary increased

In the Autonomous Region of Madeira, in 2021, 238.8 thousand acts of registry and notary were performed (up by 16.9% compared to 2020), of which 28.1% were related to real estate registry and 27.6% to civil registry, followed by notaries (19.7%), motor vehicle registry (16.5%), and commercial registry (8.0%).

Regarding the number of public deeds in 2021, there was an increase of 31.0% over the previous year, from 5.9 thousand deeds in 2020 to 7.7 thousand in 2021. The vast majority of these deeds were held in the municipality of Funchal (3.4 thousand deeds; 44.1% of the total).

Crimes – Crime rate went down

In 2021, 5.6 thousand crimes were reported by the Police Authorities in the Region, a 7.9% decrease over the previous year (6.0 thousand).

The most significant crimes in the total number of crimes registered in 2021 – “crimes against patrimony” and “crimes against persons” – totalled 2.3 and 2.0 thousand, respectively, representing in aggregate 77.0% of the overall total (76.5% in 2020). Compared to 2020, “crimes against patrimony” decreased by 10.8%, while “crimes against persons” went down by 4.0%.

By municipality, almost half of the crimes recorded in the Autonomous Region of Madeira in 2021 occurred in Funchal (2.6 thousand crimes, 46.6% of the total), followed by the municipalities of Câmara de Lobos (833 crimes, 15.0%), Santa Cruz (599 crimes, 10.8%) and Machico (446 crimes, 8.0%).

In 2021, the crime rate - which corresponds to the ratio of the number of crimes per 1,000 residents – stood at 22.1‰, lower than in 2020 (23.8‰). It should be noted that this rate was substantially lower than the national average (29.1‰)  and the value recorded in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (42.3‰). In the Region, the highest rates were recorded in “crimes against patrimony” (7.9 ‰) and “crimes of assault” (6.0 ‰).

By municipality, the lowest rate was recorded in Ponta do Sol (11.0‰) and the highest in Porto Santo (33.6‰). Besides Porto Santo, the crime rates of Ribeira Brava (29,6‰), Câmara de Lobos (25,9‰), Funchal (24,5‰) and Machico (22,8‰) also stood above the regional average.

In 2021, the law enforcement authorities identified and recorded 952 injured / offended spouses (or akin) crimes in domestic violence crimes in the Region, up by 7 from the previous year (945 persons). 2015 was the year with the highest number of the series (1,240 persons). About three out of four of these injured/offended identified persons were women. 467 (49.1%) of the injured/offended were identified in Funchal and 163 (17.1%) in Câmara de Lobos.

Lawyers – Number of lawyers increased

In 2021, 502 lawyers were enrolled in the respective Bar association in the Autonomous Region of Madeira, increasing by 3.3% over 2020. Of this total, 66 were still trainee lawyers (13.1% of the total), mostly female (68.2% of the trainee lawyers). In the remaining 436 registered lawyers (86.9% of the total), there were more men (52.1%) than women (47.9% of the total lawyers).

Prison Establishments and Inmates – Prison population stood around 278 at the end of 2021

According to information provided by the DGPJ, the Prison of Funchal had, on December 31^st, 2021, a population of 278 persons, a 9.4% increase (+24 persons) compared to the same day in 2020 (254 people), a number lower than the presented capacity (349 people). The series available (2005-2020) for existing inmates shows that this indicator recorded the highest value in 2011 (306 inmates).

DREM releases dashboard for Justice Statistics

Taking advantage of the release of data for 2021, DREM also makes available today a dashboard for Justice Statistics which allows a quick view of a set of indicators in this domain at the municipality level.

 

For more information, please click on:

• Dashboard - Justice (Portuguese only)
• Time series

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