Latin America Homicide Problem

In Latin American countries, they have a very unique culture. With their holidays, music, celebrations, and art, the countries in Latin America never cease to bring joy in people’s lives. Latin American culture is vastly different than other cultures in many ways. In Latin America, the languages of Spanish and Portuguese are dominant and most people speak them. However there are people who speak other languages as well. Latin America includes nineteen countries and several territories. There are a variety of different ethnicities in Latin America including Mexicans, Europeans, and Asians. Education inside the Latin American culture still struggles. Only a little more than half of kids ages 13-17 advance into secondary school. Because of this, the crime and violence rates in Latin America are at an all time high. These countries have been rated as one of the most dangerous regions in the world because of how high the rates of crime and violence are.

In the last decades, narco trafficking and organized crime had emerged as the main security threats in Latin America. Deviant globalization increase their power by establishing connections with similar organizations in other parts of the world, like cocaine distribution networks, for example. This perceived danger increases the pressure on the governments for effective solutions, and some of them consider that these problems had overwhelmed the capabilities of the local police. Consequently, the intervention of military forces would be necessary to secure the stability of the countries. However, the use of force as the only solution is the outcome of a misunderstanding of the root causes that generates them. This paper presents the research for a general pattern in the region that is helpful to understand how the civil society perceives the failures of governance and how the networks of illegal activities exploit this perception.

Homicide is one of the most destructive crimes worldwide. Around the globe, more than 40% of homicides are committed with firearms. There are assorted groups of risk factors for example relationship, family, and personal problems. According to statistics, Honduras has one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Race and jurisdiction are one of the leading causes of why homicides are highly prevalent. According to FBI Expanded Homicide Data, there were 742 justifiable murders in the year of 2013. Furthermore, the FBI data also states that 461 felons, were justifiably killed. Homicide is a threat that has become a large conflict to our society, affecting children, teenagers and families.

Another factor that has been brought up several times is the gun laws and how they contribute to the rates of homicide. I know you’ve heard the old saying, “guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people.” This statement has been argued both ways and there is no real information to support the claim

Chon reviews and tests Neapolitan’s Regional Subculture of Violence Thesis (1994). The finding from this study suggested the current multiple regression analysis did not support Neapolitan’s argument. However, structure factors are more of a predicator in determining high homicide rate in Latin America. Chon explains the nation’s high homicide rate comes from a multitude of sources. One explanation is constructed on the regional violent culture theory. The other explanation is structure factors, which are (a) poverty (GDP per capita), (b) income inequality, (c) literacy rate, (d) alcoholic consumption level, (e) age distribution. The researcher uses published reviewed sources to support the main argument as well as used Neapolitan’s Regional Subculture of Violence Thesis (1994). This journal article will serve to be useful for answering my research question because it uses structural factors in determining the cause of homicide rate. Also, this article focus specifically on Latin America and the countries I am studying are in Latin

            The militarization and criminalization of drugs in Latin America has led to a precipitous increase in violence, killing thousands of people and injuring many more. Economist Jeffrey Miron of CNN writes, “Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers

Honduras has the highest homicide rate in the world. (worldatlas.com) It’s a country that has been affected by imperialism multiple times throughout its history. In the early parts of the country's history, Honduras was imperialised by Spain and went through a couple of different political powers before becoming independent. During more recent times the U.S. used military force to gain control of the country in hopes to help the political uproar and failing country using imperialistic tendencies. Imperialism shaped Honduras into the country it is today by creating unnecessary wars leading to political tension, hindering the country’s economic and modern development and is continuing to shape the country by trying to reverse the adverse effect that imperialism had before.

Over the years, Salvadoran citizens have been experiencing a rise in homicides in their communities. A large portion of these homicides go unsolved and are a result of gang violence. El Salvador is ranked in the top three most deadly Latin American countries in the world. It has been consumed with violence that includes everything from gang violence, to political corruption, to police brutality, and even a declining economy, which is basically everything that can go wrong in a society bunched up into one small country. Interestingly enough, El Salvador has a history of conflict and subjugation. El Salvador is unique among its Central American neighbors not only because of its small size and dense population, but also geographically it is the

The United States has been a world leader in homicide for centuries. Indeed, “since the early 19th century ...[America has been] the most homicidal country in the Western world” and holds that title today (Kelley, 2009). In a 2007-2008 list of 31 nations, only two nations, Mexico and Chile, had higher homicide rates (Comparison, 2010). Nations with higher populations, such as India and China have fewer homicides (Comparison, 2010). Further, a nation such as Japan, which has a lower population but a higher population density then the United States, has one of the world’s lowest homicide rates (Comparison, 2010). Population size and density, therefore, cannot be the chief reasons for this nation’s higher homicide rates.

The Central American counties of the Northern Triangle: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are considered the most dangerous countries in the world that are not at war. The region is very unstable due to weak governments and gangs. The gangs in these countries rule the streets taking innocent lives, sex trafficking and rapimg women and children, while the government does little to stop them. The violence started at different times in these countries. In Honduras during the 1980s the right- winged rebel group, the Contras housed themselves in the country. El Salvador’s violence dates back to 1979 with the Civil war. This war was between the government’s military and the leftiest

In 1973, homicide was the seventh highest cause from death, but since has become the first since 1990. More than 165,000 have had a violent death between 1980 and 1990. During this decade, the homicide rate was 77.5% per 100,000 people. In comparison, the United States has been regarded as a violent country, but yet the homicide rate was only 8.0%. Contributing to this violence in Colombia is the possession of firearms. Colombians possess more than three million firearms, and more than half is possessed illegally.

What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear of the region Latin America? Poverty, violence, drugs? Latin America is a major region where drugs are generated, imported, and exported. The general stereotype with regards to Latin America is that the region is drug infested due to the history of use, the problems regarding drug trafficking, and the continued statistics proving the ongoing use of drugs. Despite the fact that not every country in Latin America fits in this mold, history and data supports this impression.

Prisons for a long time have been a gateway to try to save society, when the only thing that it’s doing is hurting the social order because it’s creating more problems that are not being treated from the beginning. Crime has become a big problem during these hard times with the poor economy, but it has especially affected Latin America because of all the problems that overcrowded prisons have brought forward. In Latin America Brazil and Mexico are the two largest countries that have been affected with having the highest percentage of crimes, inmates in prisons, and concerns with overcrowded prisons. And these increase with the high crime rates in Latin America that are rising due to drug trafficking wars in Brazil and Mexico. "The

“Violence has been a prominent social response to the application of structural adjustment policies throughout Latin America. There are societies in which, things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Violence is a shared disease that seems to arise in all societies where there are profound social differences and exploitation…Many Latin American societies are condemned to bloodletting by the precedents of violence and gross injustice that characterize their culture and their history.”

Crime, death, and destruction is a big problem in Latin America. People are getting severely harmed and killed by many things, such as gangs drug, trafficking, human trafficking, not only those things but many others. A lot of people in the world are trying to help the people that are causing major problems to the world’s economy and the people living in it. Sadly, it doesn’t or won’t stop because people think they can do what they want and get away with anything they want without thinking that it’s bad enough not to go to jail. Although, the crime rate in Latin America is higher in some countries, like for instance Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Murders and violence are a big problem that need to be controlled and solved by not only government officials but the people themselves.