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Crime and violence affect the lives of millions of people in Latin America. Some consider social inequality to be a major contributing factor to levels of violence in Latin America,[1] where the state fails to prevent crime and organized crime takes over State control in areas where the State is unable to assist the society such as in impoverished communities. In the years following the transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, crime and violence have become major problems in Latin America. The region experienced more than 2.5 million murders between 2000 and 2017.[2] Several studies indicated the existence of an epidemic in the region; the Pan American Health Organization called violence in Latin America "the social pandemic of the 20th century."[3] Apart from the direct human cost, the rise in crime and violence has imposed significant social costs and has made much more difficult the processes of economic and social development, democratic consolidation and regional integration in the Americas.[4]
Two factors which may be related to crime in Latin America are poverty and drug trafficking. Drug traffickers use violence to resolve disputes over profits or territory. Crime impedes economic growth by discouraging investment and redirecting resources from productive activities to the prevention or punishment of further crime. Data: UNODC, 2012.
^World Bank research convincingly demonstrates a strong link between crime and income inequality, which has worsened in Latin America in the past decade and is unlikely to improve dramatically in the years ahead. - Prillaman (2003:1)
^"Latin America Is the Murder Capital of the World". The Wall Street Journal. 20 September 2018.
^Cesar Chelala, Violence in the Americas: The Social Pandemic of the 20th Century (Washington, D.C.: Pan American Health Organization, 1997).
^"LAII: Crime, Violence and Democracy in Latin America". Archived from the original on November 3, 2007.
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