Posted on September 21, 2011

Bulk of Mexican Crimes Are Never Reported–Study

Reuters, September 20, 2011

About 90 percent of Mexican victims of common crime last year never contacted police, citing bureaucratic delays and general mistrust of legal authorities who solve few cases, a study by Mexico’s national statistics agency found.

Victims who went to the trouble of reporting crimes like robbery, extortion, car theft and break-ins to prosecutors faced a 35 percent chance there would be no investigation of their cases, the report released on Tuesday said.

The independent statistics agency, known as Inegi, surveyed over 78,000 households across Mexico last year and found 15 percent of victims of unreported crimes said they had no faith in the authorities.

More than 33 percent said filing a complaint was too time-consuming, while more than 6 percent said they were discouraged by the hostile attitude of the police.

The tally did not include crimes associated with Mexico’s drug violence and left out figures about drug trafficking, weapons possession and money laundering.

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