Understanding High Crime Rates in Latin America: The Role of Social and Policy Factors

This paper discusses the pattern, causes and consequence of the high crime rates observed in Latin America. Crime represents a substantial welfare loss and a potentially serious hindrance to growth. We conduct an informal assessment of the relative strength of the alternative hypotheses raised in the literature to explain the phenomenon. We argue that, despite being extremely high, the incidence of crime in the region is not much different from what should be expected based on socioeconomic and public policy characteristics of its countries. Estimates from the empirical literature suggest that most of its seemingly excessively high violence can be explained by three factors: high inequality, low incarceration rates, and small police forces. Still, country specific experiences have been different in many respects. The evidence suggests that effective policies toward violence reduction do exist and have been shown to work within the context of Latin America itself