What are the world's most violent cities?

2016-03-30T13:11:00-04:00

The thorny task of comparing crime rates across the world is tricky because legal interpretations vary. Sweden's definition of rape is not the same as America’s, for example. Murder however should be easier to record because there is an identifiable victim, something that can be counted. But the way in which this is done in poorer, often more corrupt countries makes truly comparable statistics hard to pin down. Where there are inefficient public health systems or police, it is even harder.

"Latin American and Caribbean countries suffer disproportionately compared with elsewhere, mainly because of inequality, poor rule of law, impunity and corrupt institutions that are infiltrated by drug cartels. Only two countries outside the region feature on either chart, South Africa and the United States (the list’s only rich-world country)."

The article notes the difficulty of accurately ranking cities based on crime statistics; this chart is a revision of an earlier one. But the overall picture remains the same: the world's most violent cities are in the Americas, with the one notable exception being Cape Town, South Africa. The statistics exclude war zones.

For more on crime and the city, take a look at some Archinect articles from the archive:

Archinect - News

What are the world's most violent cities?