14 Murders per 100K population (over the last 3 years)
Submitted by GranadaSherif on Wed, 2011/11/30 - 10:57.
We were lower than Costa Rica and Panama, and only in 3 years things got worse. It goes back to the Al Jazeera article about the correlation between socioeconomic situation and violence. More proof that people are actually worse off than they were previously, not only that, the gap between the have and have not has widened.
http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2011/11/30/portada/82377
P.S. The number of Firearms has little to do with the increased rate, as the number of firearms have most likely remained same over the past few years if not decades.
That rate is higher than most cities in the US: (national average in 2010 = 4.8 per 100K)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate
Stats by Country:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_r...
Did anyone watch the Cuarto Poder discussion
about this topic? it was a 2 hour discussion, very informative and had some very interesting historical Stats from the 90s and current stats from the Nicaraguan police. Talked in some length about the Crimes not reported, while murders are reported 100% of the time, robberies and Injuries are reported as low as 36% of the time .
Turn statistics into useful information
OK, we have a number. But, what does that really mean? That is, who are the victims?
Let me offer an example, based on two places I lived. In Los Angeles, if you went somewhere you did not belong you were likely to be killed. It was that simple. But, in Seattle, being lost was not really an issue. For example, a rival Chinese gang might kill you for being in their space but being a non-Chinese walking through a Chinese gang controlled area was a non-issue.
OK, back to Nicaragua. I have reasonable knowledge of two murders in Estelí. One was domestic violence (it happened to be a Gringo murdered by his Nicaraguan lover) and the other was a related to a closet gay. (In the second example, the public story was quite different.)
All that said, are there any Nicaragua statistics that offer useful information to a tourist or newcomer to Nicaragua?
Useful Stats?
As in any country with a biased/impartial police force, any stats are dubious at best. They will tend to favor the controlling government, specially if the reporting mechanismsare not in place and information is not freely available to be checked by others.
Does it matter who the victims are? is it OK to have 14 murders per 100K if they are all crack addicts, or drug dealers, or were due to domestic violence? Are you implying that these do not matter as they do not affect the average tourist or the average investor?
By the way, in 2010 a friend of mine, a Frenchman(a doctor from WHO) was murdered by his wife - who is free and never did any jail time - because of connections, and in Masaya this year, the Padre that was found murdered for being a closet gay - again with the public story obscuring this fact to save face. I guess stories repeat themselves all over the country.
Only useful stats here are for murder
If the body is found, the murder will be investigated. Other crimes such as armed robbery, have no stats because it isn't reported or isn't investigated or results in no conviction. Armed robbery here is like an epidemic but you will never find it in the stats.
The type of murder is important. Family violence is horrible, but a world-wide problem. NHI creep on creep violence is sad, but it helps clean up the gene pool. Drug trade violence is very devastating because the vast amounts of money involved lead to reckless crimes that kill innocent bystanders and undermine government institutions. Racist crime, like the genocide against white people in Los Angeles for the last 50 years, tends to destroy a community. And of course, violent crimes against tourists tends to hurt the economy.
From what I have seen, most murders in Nic. are family violence, creep on creep (usually alcohol involved) and high-value robbery. Could be worse.
``The government is clearly Marxist. The question is whether it is Karl or Groucho``
Whose fault
You said "Other crimes such as armed robbery, have no stats because it isn't reported or isn't investigated or results in no conviction." That seems to be more of an opinion than reality. We reported crimes in spite of the neighbors saying nothing would be done. One crime was in the city of Estelí, the other here (jurisdiction of San Nicolas). In both cases, those committing the crimes were arrested, prosecuted and went to jail.
In the case up here, our willingness to take action got others to take action as well. In my personal experience, if you actually elect to use the system, the system works. Yes, we contributed but it was in the form of offering transportation. For the funding level the police have, I think they do a pretty good job.
I was also recently told by a long-term resident that the remaining thieves in this area are scared now that Javier is in the slammer.
Most Nicaraguans
don't report robberies for a variety of reasons, therefore that stats are meaningless. They are so low they give a completely distorted view of life on the ground. The 36% reporting mentioned in the post above seems about right.
I'm glad you did it the American way and followed up on it. That helps the neighbors to see how a modern society with rule of law should work. And the local police eventually came through for you--and for society in general.
Yes, I too don't think the local police here in the north are bad. Under-equipped and under-utilized is the big problem.
"You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." Ayn Rand
You are right
It is not necessarily being killed that worries tourists, it is mostly the other forms of violence, which are not always reported.
Tourists seem to simply not have Nicaragua on their list
The begging unnerves some people. On average here, I don't get hassled, but with my tall blonde friend with the cameras, we got more of that and even in a store.
Most people don't find being around brutal poverty to be that much fun -- Haiti wasn't a big vacation spot in the 1970s when I was in NYC). My friend was just freaked out by Jinotega.
Rebecca Brown
Yes it does
If 80% of the murders are really domestic violence or killing Gringo tourists or crack addicts or whatever, yes, it does matter. For example, historically being black in the US south was not a good thing.
While I have not had first-hand knowledge of murders here, most of the violence I have seen has been a family feud. That is, a drunk cousin doing a machete chop because of a family disagreement. I don't want to justify this but this kind of violence is very different than, for example, something directed at tourists or a newcomer. To put it simply, there is a difference between is it safe for me to live in Nicaragua vs. is Nicaragua a safe place for crack addicts?
Crimes Directed at Tourists
are low in most countries (except maybe kidnappings or robberies) .those crimes can be avoided by tourist or a newcomers by simply staying away from known "dangerous" places. It is the randomness of killings or attacks that are more worrisome. In Nicaragua a tourist is more likely to be injured/Robbed/Stabbed etc. by the random act of some down and out Drunk than by anything more planned, like a shootings in Clubs etc. like in Mexico. I think the fact that Murders are more prevalent between drunks or Crack addicts, is not reassuring to tourists and do indeed affect the country's image.
The Graphic is wrong
http://www.laprensa.com.ni/2011/11/30/portada/82377
Check the color code against Rivas and Masaya for example Rivas should be yellow, Masaya should be green. Boaca should be yellow, Granada should be green, I stopped checking after that .
Maybe the numbers are right!!!
The graphic is made by La Prensa
Even Liberal newspapers do half as..d job most the time.
I know of 4 homicides in around Jinotepe and Diriamba in 2010. So i think the numbers are actually lower than they should.