Officials Appear to be Telling a Misleading Story About Crime Rates in Mexico Christopher Woody - Business Insider
go to original November 4, 2016

Ecatepec the most dangerous place in Mexico, where 98% feel unsafe (BavFilms)

Mexican state governments have consistently manipulated crime data to give the appearance that high-level crime has fallen, according to preliminary report findings by nonprofit statistics agency México Evalúa.

An analysis of data collected by the Mexican federal government since 1997 by James Patrick, an former Scotland Yard agent working with the nonprofit group, found malpractice in collecting and reporting crime in each of Mexico's 32 states.

The main method through which governments misrepresented crime rates was by inflating the number of lower-level crimes in order to make it appear like there had been fewer high-impact crimes, like kidnapping and intentional homicide.

Patrick also found in one case that criminal threats, accidental homicides, and intentional homicides varied in the same way over the years analyzed, which is an unlikely trend as there is no inherent correlation between those crimes. (Mexico keeps track of two kinds of homicide: homicidio doloso, i.e. an intentional killing, and homicidio culposo, i.e. a unintentional killing, as in a car crash.)

"There is an overall manipulation in data in all states in Mexico concerning all crimes," Patrick said during a presentation to media, according to El Universal.

"All states have entered into a practice of manipulation, that consists of 'sub-reportage'; that is to say, that a state reports 100 homicides when in reality it had 283," said Jonathan Furzsyfer, coordinator for México Evalua's Security Program.

Read the rest at Business Insider

Related: The More Than 100,000 Deaths in a Decade Cannot be Blamed Just on Mexico's Drug Cartels (Al Jazeera)

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