Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.

Crime is one of the most pressing issues faced in Mexico. In 2023, there were nearly 6,526 victims of theft or robbery on the street or public transportation per 100,00 inhabitants. Fraud is the type of crime with the highest victimization rate in the Latin American country, with 6,962 victims per 100,000 inhabitants.

In 2023, the State of Mexico was the federal entity with the most crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in Mexico. That year, 32,798 crimes were registered, above Aguascalientes and Mexico City both with over 32,000 crimes. Economically, the cost of crime in Mexico surpassed 282 billion Mexican pesos.

In 2023, there were 52,723 crimes in Mexico City per 100,000 inhabitants. This represented an increase after two of the lowest values reported the previous years. Furthermore, the number of crime victims per 100,000 inhabitants in Mexico City in 2023, made it the third federal entity with the highest victimization rate in Mexico that year.

Mexico crime rate per 100K population for 2021 was 28.18, a 3.46% decline from 2020.

• Mexico crime rate per 100K population for 2020 was 29.19, a 0.42% decline from 2019.
• Mexico crime rate per 100K population for 2019 was 29.31, a 0.92% decline from 2018.
• Mexico crime rate per 100K population for 2018 was 29.58, a 13.28% increase from 2017.

Intentional homicides are estimates of unlawful homicides purposely inflicted as a result of domestic disputes, interpersonal violence, violent conflicts over land resources, intergang violence over turf or control, and predatory violence and killing by armed groups. Intentional homicide does not include all intentional killing; the difference is usually in the organization of the killing. Individuals or small groups usually commit homicide, whereas killing in armed conflict is usually committed by fairly cohesive groups of up to several hundred members and is thus usually excluded.

In January 2024, the most usual type of crime reported in Mexico was domestic violence. In that month, the cases of this type of violence amounted to around 20,814 cases. Regarding property crimes, the highest number of occurrences were vehicle thefts, with nearly 11,887 reported crimes.

Domestic violence Domestic violence stands out as the crime with the highest incidence and, paradoxically, one of the least attended to by the government. Public spending allocated to combat domestic violence has been dismally low, with a value only around 25 percent of the spending on the military. Adding to the concern, this budget has witnessed a consistent decrease each year since 2015. This decline in resources has had severe consequences, leading to a surge in domestic violence crimes, with many resulting in homicides. It's noteworthy that the majority of registered femicides occur within the confines of closed domestic spaces and are often committed by the partners of the victims. This paints a concerning picture of the challenges faced in addressing and preventing domestic violence.

Mexico and the most violent cities in the world
Mexico hosts seven of the most dangerous cities globally, with Celaya ranking as the number one in terms of murder rate, registering a staggering 109.39 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants and the most of these other cities are concentrated in the upper region of the country, highlighting the significant regional variations in safety and security. On the other hand, the capital, Mexico City, has experienced a decreasing trend in crime incidence, with a notable decrease from 2018 to 2022, nonetheless, the crime rate is still high. As a result, crime and insecurity have become the primary concern for nearly half of the country's population, underscoring the pressing need for addressing these issues.

March 2023 ranked as the month with the highest number of reported crimes in Mexico City during the study period, with 22,125 cases. In contrast, December of that same year recorded the lowest figure with less than 17,000 reported crimes.

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In 2023, 7,514 men and 5,687 women were victims of robbery or theft on the street or public transportation in Mexico per 100,00 inhabitants. In the same year, 4,290 sexual offense cases involving female victims were registered, including harassment, groping, exhibitionism, (attempted) rape and sexual harassment.

On average, 25 people were murdered every 100,000 inhabitants in Mexico in 2022, down from 28 homicide cases per 100,000 people the previous year. Mexico's murder rate increased remarkably between 2015 and 2018. Between January and June of 2023, the homicide rate stood at 12 cases.

Crime and violence in Mexico

Street violence and crime are some of the most pressing problems affecting Mexican society today. A recent survey revealed that, on average, almost 76 percent of the adult population felt unsafe. The perceived level of insecurity in Mexico is more worrisome among women than men. In recent years, violence against women in Mexico has significantly worsened.

Violence against women in Mexico

The number of femicides registered in Mexico has more than doubled between 2015 and 2023. Up to 827 women were murdered in Mexico in 2023 solely on account of their gender. Over the past decade, Mexico adopted this federal criminal typification to address the increasing cases of homicide motivated by gender. Mexico State was the region with the largest number of femicides reported as such in 2023, whereas Colima stood out as the Mexican state with the highest prevalence of femicides, based on 100,000 women.

A total of over 234.474 crimes were reported in Mexico City in 2023. Cuauhtémoc was the municipality with the highest number of reported crimes, with over 33,000 cases. Followed by Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, the two most populous municipalities in Mexico City.

This data asset contains the data from the survey carried out in Mexico as part of the Juntos para la Prevención de la Violencia Performance Evaluation conducted by the Center on Conflict and Development at Texas A&M University. We surveyed a population that is representative at the urban national level for ages 16 to 29 (n = 1,539). Our sampling design ensures that our sample is not only representative across common sociodemographic categories (e.g., education and income), but also by level of violence. To do so, we consider three variables that capture levels of violence at the municipal level: homicide rate, reported nonhomicidal crime, and perceived level of violence. Homicide rates are considered more accurate official statistics compared to nonhomicidal crimes, as they are often reported more often by the general population and are typically recorded more accurately because they are definitionally specific and typically go through the health system (UNODC 2019). However, this measure does not capture the full reality of insecurity. For this reason, we also include measures generated from Mexico’s National Survey of Urban Public Security (ENSU) to capture nonhomicidal violence and insecurity at the municipal level. Given that the ENSU data are not representative at the municipal level, using this survey and the 2015 intercensus, we generate municipal estimates using multilevel regression and poststratification (MRP). These measures capture the preponderance of nonhomicidal crime (MRP victimization) and perceived community insecurity (MRP insecurity) at the municipal level. With these estimates and homicide rates, we then order municipalities based on level of insecurity and sample via seriation. Our sampling strategy generated a survey sample that is reflective of the ENSU survey in terms of violence level across all three categories. The dataset includes 102 columns and 1,539 rows (corresponding to each respondent). The survey aims to gather information about respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics, victimization, in/security perceptions, protective factors against delinquency, and exposure to and perceptions about gang participation. It also has embedded an original vignette experiment. Experimental vignette studies in survey research use short descriptions of hypothetical scenarios (vignettes) that are usually presented to respondents within surveys in order to elicit how their judgments about such scenarios affect outcomes of interest, often revealing their perceptions, values, or social norms. In our vignette, we randomize the perpetrator’s socioeconomic status and upbringing, the type of criminal involvement (leader vs. gang member), the severity of the crime, and the type of victim to understand how youth attribute blame.

Drinking alcohol on the street was the most common offense witnessed by people in Mexico in 2024. When asked which type of crime or antisocial activity they had witnessed, over 63 percent of respondents said alcohol consumption. The second most reported kind of crime was drug consumption, whereas 50 percent of the people surveyed said they had seen this type of crime.

A total of over four million crimes were committed in Mexico City in 2023. The northern and eastern regions were the areas that registered the largest number of crimes, with around a million each. The most common type of crime was theft or robbery on the street or public transport, which accounted for nearly a third of all committed crimes.

Colima was the city in Mexico that led the ranking of highest homicide rates in 2023. The city had a murder rate of approximately 140.32 per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Ciudad Obregón, with a homicide rate of 117.83. That year, those two cities had the highest homicide rates not only in Mexico, but in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The average for 2017 based on 65 countries was 1.8 kidnappings per 100,000 people. The highest value was in Belgium: 10.3 kidnappings per 100,000 people and the lowest value was in Bermuda: 0 kidnappings per 100,000 people. The indicator is available from 2003 to 2017. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

In July 2024, in the Mexican state of Jalisco the most common crime was robberies with a 30.96 percent of the total reported crimes. Followed by other common law crimes and domestic violence with 12.17 percent and 11.34 percent respectively. Homicides, sexual abuse, and drug dealing also made the cut.

The border city of Tijuana was the Mexican municipality with the highest number of homicides, with 1,844 cases reported in 2023, a decrease when compared to the over 2,000 cases reported last year. Tijuana was followed by Ciudad Juárez, located south of El Paso, Texas, with a total of 1,246 homicides.

Over 25,000 murders were reported in Mexico in 2023. Guanajuato was the federal entity with most intentional homicides that year, amounting to 2,581 cases. Mexico State registered the second highest number of murder cases, with 2,254. When it comes to number of homicides in general - including both murder and manslaughter - Guanajuato ranked second behind Mexico State.

The number of people murdered in Mexico amounted to almost 33,300 in 2021, a slightly lower figure to the one registered one year earlier. Mexico ranked as the second Latin American country with the highest number of intentional homicides in 2022, only exceeded by Brazil.