UN global study: Murder rate very high in Americas (US/Canada below global avg)
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Global murder rates have declined slightly, but remain very high in the Americas and parts of Africa, according to a new U.N. study released Thursday.
Homicide rates in southern Africa and Central America are more than four times higher than the global average of 6.2 victims per 100,000 people, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report said. The figures chronicle murder rates in 2012. The global average was 6.9 in 2010, the year of the last previous study.
That comes as no news to the city of San Pedro Sula, long considered the most violent city in Honduras, the country with the highest murder rate in the world: 90.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the study. Someone in Honduras is almost 15 times more likely to be murdered than an average human being, and people run an even greater risk in San Pedro Sula, where death comes so quickly victims often don't see it coming.
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U.N. policy analyst Jean-Luc Lemahieu said the figures show that while Canada and the U.S. remain below the global average — the U.S. homicide rate was 4.7 per 100,000 inhabitants — some countries in Central and South America are making little progress.
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"With other parts of Central America, you have to look at the gang issue," he said. "The gangs are often created for people who are marginalized, who are looking for an identity. They need competition against other gangs, against society. They want to be seen, to be violent, to establish territory."
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/un-global-study-murder-rate-very-high-americas
