In 2024, the highest homicide rate among 22 Latin American and Caribbean countries surveyed was in Haiti, with around 62 murders committed per 100,000 inhabitants. Trinidad and Tobago came in second, with a homicide rate of 46, while Honduras ranked seventh, with 25. In the same year, the lowest rate was recorded in El Salvador, with a homicide rate of 1.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. A violence-ridden region Violence and crime are some of the most pressing problems affecting Latin American society nowadays. More than 40 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world are located in this region, as well as one of the twenty countries with the least peace in the world according to the Global Peace Index. Despite governments’ large spending on security and high imprisonment rates, drug and weapon trafficking, organized crime, and gangs have turned violence into an epidemic that affects the whole region and a solution to this issue appears to be hardly attainable. The cost of violence in Mexico Mexico stands out as an example of the great cost that violence inflicts upon a country, since beyond claiming human lives, it also affects everyday life and has a negative impact on the economy. Mexicans have a high perceived level of insecurity, as they do not only fear becoming victims of homicide, but also of other common crimes, such as assault or rape. Such fear prevents people from performing everyday activities, for instance, going out at night, taking a taxi or going to the movies or the theater. Furthermore, the economic toll of violence in Mexico is more than considerable. For example, the cost of homicide and violent crime amounted to 2099.8 and 1778.1 billion Mexican pesos in 2023, respectively.

Between 2020 and 2023, motor vehicle theft has fluctuated around 3,00 and 4,000 thefts per year in the Dominican Republic. In 2023, 3,328 vehicle thefts.

Several countries located in Central America and the Caribbean registered some of the highest homicide rates in the Latin American region in 2022. Jamaica ranked first, with around 53.34 homicides committed per 100,000 inhabitants. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines came second, with 40.41 homicides per 100,000 people. The source defines intentional homicide as the unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury. When it comes to the total case count, Brazil was the Latin American country with the largest number of homicide victims. Central America and the falling rates El Salvador was commonly named the murder capital of the world for a few years. The inability of previous governments to control organized crime and gangs resulted in the highest homicide rate in the world for a couple of years. Nonetheless, the current administration and the measures applied during the Emergency State had an incredibly positive impact in terms of the security of the Salvadorean citizens. But not only El Salvador has seen a considerable reduction in its murder rate in Central America. Honduras and Guatemala are also two great examples of crime reduction, introducing new policies, institutions, and changes to their judicial system to achieve better results.
The Caribbean still ridden by crime Some islands in the Caribbean are not only known as tax heavens, as some nations in the region are considered the main enablers of tax evasion in the world, but also for being ridden by crime. Haiti is one example of the still rising levels of criminality. As a country with precarious conditions and extreme food insecurity, the homicide rate has been on the rise for almost four consecutive years. Another one is Jamaica, the top of the Latin American ranking, that has also seen an increase in the youth involved in organized crime due to lack of employment and economic conditions.

Among the cities depicted in this statistic, Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, registered the highest homicide rate as of 2023. An average of 118 people every 100,000 inhabitants in this city were reportedly murdered. In Kingston, the Jamaican capital, the homicide rate was estimated at 55.35.

In 2024, there were approximately 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the Dominican Republic. Both the number of homicides committed in this Caribbean country and the murder rate have been decreasing since 2014, when over 18 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants were reported.

Jamaica is one of the most violent countries in the Caribbean. In 2024, there were approximately 40.1 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the island nation. This was one of the highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean that year.

Some of the most populous countries in Latin America were also the nations that register the highest number of murders. Brazil was the country with the largest number of intentional homicides in the region with 44,367 victims. Mexico came in second, with 33,287 homicide victims, followed by Colombia with over 13,000 victims.

Except for 2020, homicide levels had been growing in this Caribbean country at least since 2014. The homicide rate in Trinidad and Tobago also improved in 2020. In 2024, the numbers of murders drop again and a total of 625 occurrences were registered in the country.

In 2023, the number of intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Haiti was estimated at 41.15, up from 18.98 the year before. The homicide rate registered in the Caribbean country remained relatively stable from 2011 to 2016, in the range of 9 to 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, before beginning to increase in 2018.

This table focuses on the victimization of common crime of the population of the Caribbean Netherlands aged 15 and older in private households. These are traditional crimes such as violence, property crimes and vandalism. Breakdowns by sex, age and level of education are presented. These aspects are shown for the Caribbean Netherlands and also for the islands Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba separately. The research is a sample survey. This means that the figures shown are estimates for which reliability margins apply. These margins are also included in the table. The Omnibus survey was carried out for the first time on Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius in 2013 during the month of June and the first week of July. For the second time the Omnibus survey was carried out on Bonaire during the months of October and November 2017, and on Saba and St. Eustatius in the period January to March 2018.

Data available from: 2013

Status of the figures: The figures in this table are final.

Changes as of 4 April 2019 None, this is a new table.

When will new figures be published? New data will be published every four years.

The homicide rate in Iceland varied between 2010 and 2022, from roughly 0.3 murders per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019, to 1.37 in 2020. In real figures, the total number of homicides reached five in 2020, an unusually high number for Iceland; since 1994 there were six years where no intentional homicides were committed in Iceland, although the last of these was in 2008. Iceland generally has one of the lowest homicide rates in Europe. The most dangerous countries in Europe and worldwide In Europe, Latvia had the highest murder rate in 2021 with 5.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. Malta had the lowest with 0.39. Worldwide, Saint Kitts and Nevis is the world's most dangerous country to live in in terms of murder rate. The Caribbean island country had a homicide rate of 65 per 100,000 inhabitants. Nine of the 10 countries with the highest murder rates worldwide are located in Latin America and the Caribbean. Celaya in Mexico was the city with the highest homicide rate worldwide. Victims of homicides In most of the European countries, a higher share of the victims of homicides are men. France was the country with the highest number of homicides on the continent, whereas Malta and Iceland had the lowest. France both had the highest number of female and male victims.

Introduction and aimIndividual-level exposure to violence is known to influence various aspects of the experience of psychosis. This study aimed to assess the impact of local violence rates on the symptom profiles and outcomes of people with psychosis, their exposure to trauma and other potential risk and protective factors, and interactions with the police and mental health services, in a Caribbean country with high rates of violent crime.MethodsData from 212 people with psychosis and matched population control participants were collected through a population-based programme of research on psychosis in Trinidad (INTREPID II) and linked geographically with crime statistics, disaggregated to the areas surrounding each police station.ResultsThere was no evidence of a substantive association between local rates of violent crime and symptoms of psychosis or the course of illness on most measures, although people in lower crime areas appeared to be more likely to experience hallucinations than those living in high-violence areas (β-0.30, 95% CI −0.50–−0.11, p

The homicide rate in Paraguay from stood at 6.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023, a decrease in comparison to the previous year rate. The homicide rate in this South American country peaked in 2016, when it reached 9.8 homicides per 100,000 persons. Nevertheless, the country ranked with one of the lowest homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021.

Dominica was the country with the highest burglary rate in the Caribbean in 2020. Up to *** home burglaries were reported per 100,000 population in this island nation. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines registered the second-highest rate, with *** such crime reports per 100,000 inhabitants.

Jamaica is one of the countries with the highest homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean. Indeed, the number of people murdered in Jamaica amounted to 1,141 in 2024, slightly down from 1,393 victims a year earlier.

Cuba is one of the Caribbean nations with the highest prison population rate as of August 2024. According to the latest data available at that time, there were 794 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants on this island, followed by the Bahamas, with 409 prisoners per 100,000 population. In some Caribbean countries, over 10 percent of the prison population were foreign nationals.

In 2022, Grenada had the highest robbery rate in the Caribbean, with an estimated ***** incidents per 100,000 inhabitants. Dominica registered ******** such crime reports per 100,000 population, ranking second in the region.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines was the Caribbean country with the highest robbery rate. According to the latest data, it was estimated that approximately ***** robberies were reported per 100,000 inhabitants. Dominica registered ***** such crime reports per 100,000 population in 2019.

In 2024, the homicide rate in Trinidad and Tobago stood at around 45.7 homicide victims per 100,000 population. The murder levels increased 8.1 points compared to a year earlier, when 37.6 homicides were registered per 100,000 inhabitants. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago had one of the highest homicide rates that year.

San Juan was one of the most dangerous cities in the Caribbean, at least when it comes to the number of homicides. For instance, the Puerto Rican capital registered a total of 172 homicides in 2019. Like its capital, Puerto Rico ranked as one of the most dangerous countries in the Latin American and Caribbean region in 2020.