Assaults and Weapons in Portuguese Schools Reach a Five-Year High, the PSP's Safe School Report Shows, While Robberies Fall to a Low

Police recorded 4,075 incidents linked to Portuguese schools in the 2025/26 school year, 4.6 percent more than the year before. Assaults and weapons offences both reached their highest level in five years. The figures come from the annual report of the PSP's (Polícia de Segurança Pública, the Public Security Police) Programa Escola Segura (Safe School Programme), released on Tuesday and reported by the Lusa news agency.

Of the 4,075 incidents, 2,898 were crimes and 1,177 were not. A year earlier the PSP counted 3,897, of which 2,791 were crimes. The police say criminal incidents have been above their ten-year average every year since 2023/24, and the total was above that average again this year.

What was reported

One incident can involve more than one offence, and the PSP counted 3,370 crimes in all, up 3.5 percent. Assault was the most common, at 1,426 cases (up 10.5 percent). Insults and threats came next, at 920 (up 3.1 percent). The report says both have been rising since 2021/22, the first year after the pandemic.

Officers found 60 weapons: three firearms, 50 knives and other bladed weapons, and seven of other types. That is 11.1 percent more than in 2024/25, including one more firearm. Sexual offences rose 18.4 percent to 103, and the report describes "a growing trend" since 2023/24. Drug trafficking cases rose 69 percent to 22.

Some offences fell. Robbery dropped to 67, the lowest in five years, and theft fell to 324.

The PSP logged 155 bullying cases (25 more than the year before) and 25 cases of cyberbullying (one more). Both had been falling since 2022/23. Among incidents that were not crimes, disruption of school activities rose 17.9 percent to 508, and possession or use of drugs rose 28.9 percent to 49.

Where

About 69 percent of the criminal incidents happened inside school grounds. The Lisbon Metropolitan Command recorded the most incidents (1,706), followed by Porto (690) and Setúbal (342). The fewest were in Évora (11), Portalegre (16) and Guarda (24). The PSP polices the cities; schools in rural areas fall to the GNR (Guarda Nacional Republicana, the National Republican Guard), so these figures do not cover the whole country.

Commissioner Patrícia Firmino told RTP that the programme had stepped up its prevention work, with almost 93,000 one-to-one contacts with pupils, more than 10,000 above the year before. "The aim is to understand the underlying issues that lead to incidents," she said.

Head teachers ask for more staff

Filinto Lima, who leads ANDAEP (Associação Nacional de Diretores de Agrupamentos e Escolas Públicas, the National Association of Public School Directors), told Lusa that the problem is structural. "These numbers reflect what is happening in society: a society that is less and less tolerant, more and more aggressive, with less and less patience," he said. He added that the figures also reflect teachers paying closer attention and reporting more.

Lima said schools run their own programmes on bullying and dating violence, but need more psychologists and social workers, "above all in the big Lisbon and Porto regions". He also called for more help from families: "It is not the majority, but there is a fringe of families who should work more closely with schools."

The police figures sit alongside a different picture from pupils themselves. The addiction institute's latest school survey found fewer teenagers getting into fights than in 2019, with the risks concentrated in a smaller group. The PSP report counts incidents that reach the police, not how common violence is among pupils.