Homicide rate in Peru and Latin America

As each year InSight Crime, a non-profit journalism and investigative organization specialized in monitoring and informing about organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, published the “2018 Homicide Round-Up” for the region recently.

Homicide rates in Latin America and the Caribbean 2018 

With a worsening crisis in Venezuela, dark days in Nicaragua, an ever more fragile peace process in Colombia, new governments and new ideas in Brazil, Mexico and beyond, 2018 was a year of turmoil across Latin America and the Caribbean. Homicide levels have reflected this uncertainty, rising sharply in parts, continuing to drop in others.

• Chile: 2.7 per 100,000 (down from 3.3 in 2017)
• Paraguay: 5.1 per 100,000 (down from 9.8 in 2017)
• Argentina: 5.2 per 100,000 (down from 6 in 2017)
• Ecuador: 5.7 per 100,000 (down from 5.8 in 2017)
• Bolivia: 6.3 per 100,000 (down from 8.5 in 2017)
• Nicaragua: 7 per 100,000 (data from 2017)
• Peru: 7.8 per 100,000 (data from 2017 - up from 7.7 in 2016)
• Panama: 9.6 per 100,000 (down from 10.2 in 2017)
• Dominican Republic: 10.4 per 100,000 (down from 14.9 in 2017)
• Uruguay: 11.2 per 100,000 (up from 7.8 in 2017)
• Costa Rica: 11.7 per 100,000 (down from 12.1 in 2017)
• Puerto Rico: 20 per 100,000 (up from 19.7 in 2017)
• Guatemala: 22.4 per 100,000 (down from 26.1 in 2017
• Colombia: 25 per 100,000 (up from 24 in 2017)
• Brazil: 25 per 100,000 (down from 29.7 in 2017)
• Mexico: 25.8 per 100,000 (up from 19.5 in 2017)
• Belize: 35.9 per 100,000
• Trinidad and Tobago: 37.5 per 100,00
• Honduras: 40 per 100,000 (down from 42.8 in 2017)
• Jamaica: 47 per 100,000 (down from 55.7 in 2017)
• El Salvador: 51 per 100,000 (down from 60 in 2017)
• Venezuela: 81.4 per 100,000 (down from 89 in 2017)

Homicide rate in Peru 2018

Unfortunately, so far no data for 2018 is available.

INEI, Peru’s National Institute of Statistics, reported in July 2018 that 2,487 murders were registered in 2017, slightly up from the 2,435 in 2016.

The homicide rate in Peru rose to 7.8 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017.

The regions in Peru with the highest homicide rate in 2017 were Madre de Dios (46,6 per 100,000), Tumbes (28,8 per 100,000), Lima Region (14 per 100,000), Pasco (13,3 per 100,000), Callao Region (13.1 per 100,000), Ucayali (12.1 per 100,000) and Puno (10 per 100,000).

The cities in Peru with the highest homicide rate 2017 included Tumbes (57.7 per 100,000), Barranca (45.8 per 100,000), Huaral (28.2 per 100,000), Pisco (17.5 per 100,000), Piura (17.1 per 100,000), Puno (15.9 per 100,000), Juliaca (15.0 per 100,000), Huanuco (14.4 per 100,000) and Ayacucho (13.2 per 100,000).

The city of Lima has a homicide rate of 8 per 100,000 inhabitants. Districts in Lima with the highest homicide rate in 2017 were La Victoria (15.6 per 100,000), El Agustino (11.8 per 100,000), Lima city center (11.3 per 100,000), Rimac (10.4 per 100,000), Ventanilla and Independencia (both with 10 per 100,000).

According to INEI 77.9% of victims of violent death in Peru in 2017 were men, 22.1% women. The femicide rate, so the intentional killing of females because they are females, was 5.3%.

36.8% of all homicide victims were between 15 and 29 years of age, 29.4% between 30 and 49 years.

55.7% of murders were committed by a to the victim unknown person, 25.7% by an acquaintance and 5.5% by a partner / spouse.

66.6% of the homicides in Peru were committed using a firearm, 16.6% a knife and 19.5% by strangulation, suffocation and drowning. The main alleged reason for homicides was revenge (33.8%) followed by common crime (19.9%), organized crime (14.9%), jealousy (9.3%) and family and non-family domestic violence (7.4%).

Even though Peru has the 7th lowest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, the country increasingly faces security threats from drug trafficking groups and other criminal networks.