Latin American Homicide (Chapter 3)

Authors

Guillermo Escano, University at Albany, State University of New YorkFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

Guillermo Jesus Escano: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9654-1335

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2024

Abstract

The urgency for studying Latin America and the Caribbean(LAC) emanates from violence rates that are remarkably higher than in most world regions. Global homicide rates have recently declined (Rogers & Pridemore, 2018; Tuttle et al., 2018). While LAC followed suit, its rates are still comparatively high, and it is home to less than 10% of the global population but about one-third of homicides. The World Health Organization defines violence as endemic if a nation reaches ten homicides per 100,000 residents. Over two-thirds of LAC, nations meet this threshold (World Health Organization, 2023), and the regional mean is above 10. The Pan American Health Organization deemed LAC violence the social pandemic of the century in the Americas (Imbush, 2011). Of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world – as measured by homicide rates – 42 are in LAC (Igarapé, 2023). Although not experiencing civil war, homicide rates in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico are at or above nations with active conflicts (Feldmann & Luna, 2022). Beyond the harm to individuals, families, and communities, the Inter-American Development Bank reported that crime and violence in the region cost a quarter trillion dollars annually, or 3.5% of the region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Jaitman et al., 2017).

Comments

This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/CRC Press in Routledge Handbook of Homicide on February 28th, 2024, available online: http://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Homicide-Studies/Burgason-DeLisi/p/book/9781032505305

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Escano, Guillermo, "Latin American Homicide (Chapter 3)" (2024). School of Criminal Justice Other Graduate Student Scholarship. 2.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/scj-grad-scholarship/2