Targeting 'Hot Spots' Could Drastically Reduce Latin America's Murder Rate Robert Muggah, Katherine Aguirre and Spencer Chainey - Americas Quarterly
go to original March 15, 2017

In Bogotá, just 1.2 percent of street addresses account for 99 percent of homicides. In Medellín, 40 percent of all crimes occur in just 10 hours of the 168-hour week.

Perhaps more than any other part of the world, homicide in Latin America is concentrated by time and place - for policymakers hoping to reduce the region’s staggering levels of violent crime, this represents a major opportunity.

Home to just 8 percent of the world’s population, Latin America experiences 33 percent of the world’s homicides, and is disproportionately affected by other forms of victimization, including assault, robbery and property crime. Most of this occurs in just a handful of urban settings. In response, crime prevention measures that explicitly target places, people and times where criminal activity recur have generated remarkable successes in the region.

Innovations in law enforcement and social prevention are critical to preventing murder. Various policing methods, including proximity policing, community policing and problem-oriented policing (POP), have helped reduce murder rates in once notoriously violent cities like Medellín, San Pedro Sula and São Paulo by as much as 70-90 percent over the past two decades.

Although these examples offer a glimpse of what is possible, such success stories are still rare. Policing and prevention strategies that focus on “hot spots,” “hot people” and “hot behaviors” urgently need to be replicated and scaled-up.

Although these examples offer a glimpse of what is possible, such success stories are still rare. Policing and prevention strategies that focus on “hot spots,” “hot people” and “hot behaviors” urgently need to be replicated and scaled-up.

Read the rest at Americas Quarterly

Photo: André Gustavo Stumpf/flickr)

This article is part of AQ's special series on ideas to cut Latin America's murder rate in half, presented in partnership with the Igarapé Institute.

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