Law and Order: Residents of Latin American Feel Least Safe in Gallup Survey Jan Sonnenschein - Gallup
go to original August 20, 2014

Residents of Latin America and the Caribbean were the least likely among all global regions last year to feel secure in their communities. In 2013, the region scored a 56 (on a scale from 0 to 100) on Gallup's Law and Order Index, which is based on confidence in local police, feelings of personal safety, and self-reported incidence of theft. Residents of Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the U.S. and Canada were the most likely to feel secure.



The relatively poor personal security situation in Latin America and the Caribbean has not significantly improved over the past five years. In contrast, Law and Order Index scores have improved among residents of the former Soviet Union, a region that had a similarly low score as Latin America and the Caribbean in 2009. Meanwhile, people's sense of personal security has deteriorated in the Middle East/North Africa region, as well as in South Asia.

Eight out of 10 countries with the highest homicide rates are located in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the region accounting for 36% of the world's homicides in 2012, according to a United Nations report. Furthermore, the Americas have overtaken Africa - where index scores are only slightly higher - as the region with the most murders, largely because of a surge in organized crime.



Read the rest at Gallup

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