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Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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It's no secret Latin American countries have some of the highest violent crime rates in the world. For murder rate, for instance, Latin American cities dominate the list. Cities in Colombia or Guatemala are notorious for being dangerous, even for tourists.
While most of the violence is carried out by criminals (well obviously, once you carry out a crime you are a criminal by definition lol), okay maybe 'career criminals' if you like, is Latin American society also prone to more violence? I mean football/soccer riots are a good example. There've been riots where people have been killed in South America, I do not recall this happening in Europe or Asia. Is it part of the 'hot-blooded' Latin temperament? I mean the US is more violent than Europe, so in the same way is Latin America more violent than Spain?
You really do have a huge vault of stupid questions Trimac, really. It doesn't happen in Asia? Vietnam? Indonesia? Latin America is more violent than Spain? I mean, where do you get this crap from - which part of Latin America... Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Cuba? - and comparing developing countries to a pseudo 'first' world country that has been propped up by EU money just isn't sport you know.
Well I don't know the reasons, but it is true that Latin America has many bands like Maras or other violent groups that you can barely see in other places, also the drugs traffic... maybe the past bad economy, or whatever.
People who live in Latin America mostly protect themselves from "neither of the above", but from petty crime of opportunity. You never leave anything where it can be stolen, because it certainly will be, if left exposed to the risk of theft.
Houses and cars are securely locked, properties are gated or walled, watchmen are hired, people are careful about where they go after dark. Not because of organized crime, but because of the risk that a passerby will see an opportunity for ill-gotten gains.
Trimac20, there are times when one would wish to vanish underneath one's dunce cap and disappear. You are having one of these moments.
Tiptoe away from this thread, shhh be very quiet , maybe nobody will notice .....
Its central america and northern south america (who also belong partially to caribbean area, like colombia and venezuela).
There are many countries in South America that have way lower homicide rates than the US, I could name a few, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and even Peru, Bolivia, paraguay, ecuador. I think the high violence/homicide rates are more a central american problem rather than "latin american".
You really do have a huge vault of stupid questions Trimac, really. It doesn't happen in Asia? Vietnam? Indonesia? Latin America is more violent than Spain? I mean, where do you get this crap from - which part of Latin America... Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Uruguay, Puerto Rico, Cuba? - and comparing developing countries to a pseudo 'first' world country that has been propped up by EU money just isn't sport you know.
As a region, Latin America has the overall highest crime rates. Yes, he was using a shorthand but then it'd be instead saying Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, US, and South Africa. The last three aren't in Latin America, but the other ones are and comprise a very large proportion of Latin American countries at that. East Asia really does have far less violent crime than those countries as does Spain. There is some kind of problem going on and part of it might be the fueling of drug demand from countries such as the US, massive inequality within society (high Gini coefficients, latent racism), and a good supply of weapons due to fairly recent militaristic regimes for some of these countries and relations with the number one arms manufacturer and seller in the world (the US).
I agree though that we need another term that doesn't just encompass all of Latin America. Central America outside of Nicaragua (less violence here), Panama, and Costa Rica, South America aside from the Andean Community (save for Colombia) and the Southern Cone? Seems like a mouthful.
As a region, Latin America has the overall highest crime rates.
I doubt if you have any idea what the "crime rates" are. Murder rates are well known, but probably based on highly variable and faulty methodology. In Latin America, non-homicide crimes are seldom reported to the police, because the police are generally regarded as the enemy, and one avoids contact with them at all cost.
As for north vs. south Latin America, I lived in Chile for a year, and as far as I could tell, the country is no more crime-free than most of Colombia, which I've been to several times, but admittedly, I have not been to the Caribbean coast of Colombia, which is presumably more dangerous than the rest of the country. But as for the interior of Colombia, the crime risk is probably higher than Chile, but not by a dramatic margin.
I doubt if you have any idea what the "crime rates" are. Murder rates are well known, but probably based on highly variable and faulty methodology. In Latin America, non-homicide crimes are seldom reported to the police, because the police are generally regarded as the enemy, and one avoids contact with them at all cost.
Homicide rate, my mistake. And yes, there are large variations on how data is collected and other issues. People go on the best that they have available, there's really not much else to do there.
Tendency to underreport would mean crime rates are even worse than what's measured, right?
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, maybe nobody will notice .....
