Youth Crime Reports to the GNR Climbed 11.6 Percent in Six Months, as Violent Cases Nearly Halved and Online Exposure Cases Grew

Crime reports involving young people in the areas the GNR polices rose by 11.6 percent in the first half of 2026, but the more serious offences fell sharply and a growing share of conflicts between teenagers is now happening online, according to figures the Guarda Nacional Republicana released on Sunday.

The GNR recorded 797 reports linked to young people aged up to 16 between January and June, against 714 in the same period of 2025. It is a count of reported incidents in GNR territory, which covers most of rural and small-town Portugal; the big cities are policed by the PSP and are not included.

Fewer violent cases

Violent and serious crime involving young people fell by 44 percent, from 25 cases to 14. The GNR attributes most of the drop to two categories:

• street robberies halved, from ten cases to five;
• serious assaults fell from four cases to one.

The two most common offences also fell. Simple assault, still the most frequent, was down 19.7 percent to 212 reports, and threats and coercion were down 8.4 percent to 76.

What went up

Several smaller categories rose:

• driving without a licence, up 50 percent, from 18 to 27 cases;
• shoplifting, up 26.1 percent, from 23 to 29;
• drug trafficking, up 42.9 percent, from seven to ten.

The rise the GNR singles out is in what Portuguese law calls devassa by digital means: exposing someone's private life through the internet, social networks or other channels. Those reports went from five to 13, an increase of 160 percent. The GNR says the trend reflects growing cyberbullying and a "growing shift" of conflicts between young people onto digital platforms. The numbers are small, but they point in the same direction as warnings the director of the Polícia Judiciária gave parliament in May about online child abuse material, bullying and sexual extortion.

When and where

Most incidents happened on weekdays between 13:00 and 18:00, which the GNR links to pupils leaving school, travelling home and spending time near school gates. By district, Setúbal had the most reports (142), followed by Faro (98), Lisbon (96) and Porto (79).

The wider picture is less clear-cut than one half-year suggests. The government's Annual Internal Security Report (RASI) for 2025 found that juvenile delinquency had fallen by 1.3 percent across the country, although the number of educational guardianship measures imposed by the courts on young offenders went up.

What the GNR is doing

The force says it has stepped up the prevention side of its Escola Segura (Safe School) programme, with more patrols around schools, along the routes pupils walk and at transport stops, and with talks in schools on online safety, cyberbullying and drug and alcohol use.

For parents, the practical message is that the risks the GNR now emphasises are as likely to arrive on a phone as at the school gate.