Editing Latin America (section)

===Crime and violence===
{{main|Crime and violence in Latin America}}
[[File:Homicide rates per 100000 people world, UNODC 2012.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.25|2012 map of countries by [[List of countries by intentional homicide rate|homicide rate]]. As of 2015, the Latin American countries with the highest rates were El Salvador (108.64 per 100,000 people), Honduras (63.75) and Venezuela (57.15). The countries with the lowest rates were Chile (3.59), Cuba (4.72) and Argentina (6.53).]]
Latin America and the Caribbean have been cited by numerous sources to be the most dangerous regions in the world.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/142442/latin-america-most-dangerous-world-region-in-terms-of-violence-calderon-.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024043050/http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/142442/latin-america-most-dangerous-world-region-in-terms-of-violence-calderon-.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 24, 2012|title=Latin America the Most Dangerous Region in terms of Violence|access-date=August 28, 2013}}</ref> Studies have shown that Latin America contains the majority of the world's [[List of cities by murder rate|most dangerous cities]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4404176.stm|work=BBC News|title=Latin America: Crisis behind bars|date=November 16, 2005|access-date=May 7, 2010|archive-date=September 8, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170908172128/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4404176.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Crime and violence prevention and public security are now important issues for governments and citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean region. Homicide rates in Latin America are the highest in the world. From the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, homicide rates increased by 50 percent. Latin America and the Caribbean experienced more than 2.5 million murders between 2000 and 2017.<ref>{{cite news|title=Latin America Is the Murder Capital of the World|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/400-murders-a-day-the-crisis-of-latin-america-1537455390|work=The Wall Street Journal|date=September 20, 2018|access-date=July 26, 2019|archive-date=March 23, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323151839/https://www.wsj.com/articles/400-murders-a-day-the-crisis-of-latin-america-1537455390|url-status=live}}</ref> There were a total of 63,880 murders in Brazil in 2018.<ref>{{cite news|title=A Year of Violence Sees Brazil's Murder Rate Hit Record High|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/americas/brazil-murder-rate-record.html|work=The New York Times|date=August 10, 2018|access-date=July 26, 2019|archive-date=August 16, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816111814/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/world/americas/brazil-murder-rate-record.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The most frequent victims of such homicides are young men, 69 percent of them between the ages of 15 and 19. Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the highest homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015 were: El Salvador 109, Honduras 64, Venezuela 57, Jamaica 43, Belize 34.4, [[St. Kitts and Nevis]] 34, Guatemala 34, [[Trinidad and Tobago]] 31, [[the Bahamas]] 30, Brazil 26.7, Colombia 26.5, the Dominican Republic 22, [[St. Lucia]] 22, [[Guyana]] 19, Mexico 16, Puerto Rico 16, Ecuador 13, [[Grenada]] 13, [[Costa Rica]] 12, Bolivia 12, Nicaragua 12, Panama 11, [[Antigua and Barbuda]] 11, and Haiti 10.<ref name="Homicide Statistics database.">{{cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=ZJ&year_high_desc=false|title=Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people)|publisher=UN Office on Drugs and Crime's International Homicide Statistics database.|access-date=September 21, 2017|archive-date=September 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922100402/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=ZJ&year_high_desc=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of the countries with the highest homicide rates are in Africa and Latin America. Countries in Central America, like El Salvador and Honduras, top the list of homicides in the world.<ref name="murder rates2">{{cite web|url=https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-27/map-here-are-countries-worlds-highest-murder-rates|title=Map: Here are countries with the world's highest murder rates|date=June 27, 2016 |publisher=UN Office on Drugs and Crime's International Homicide Statistics database.|access-date=February 1, 2017|archive-date=February 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201131042/https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-27/map-here-are-countries-worlds-highest-murder-rates|url-status=live}}</ref>

Brazil has more overall [[homicide]]s than any country in the world, at 50,108, accounting for one in 10 globally. Crime-related violence is the biggest threat to public health in Latin America, striking more victims than [[HIV/AIDS]] or any other infectious disease.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Apr/21-965427.html|title=Crime Hinders Development, Democracy in Latin America, U.S. Says – US Department of State|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213142246/http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Apr/21-965427.html|archive-date=February 13, 2008}}</ref> Countries with the lowest homicide rate per year per 100,000 inhabitants as of 2015 were: Chile 3, Peru 7, Argentina 7, Uruguay 8 and Paraguay 9.<ref name="Homicide Statistics database."/><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/4/751|title="Understanding the uneven distribution of the incidence of homicide in Latin America"|date=2008 |doi=10.1093/ije/dyn153 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100601042340/http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/37/4/751|archive-date=June 1, 2010 |last1=Briceno-Leon |first1=R. |last2=Villaveces |first2=A. |last3=Concha-Eastman |first3=A. |journal=International Journal of Epidemiology |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=751–757 |pmid=18653511 }} ''International Journal of Epidemiology''</ref>