Central America Murder Rate Near Crisis Point: U.N.

The spread of drug wars means young men in Central America can face a 1 in 50 chance of being murdered before reaching their 31st birthday, a U.N. report showed, describing the trend as close to “crisis point.”

Worldwide, 468,000 people were victims of homicide in 2010, with around a third of cases in Africa and a further third in the Americas, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its first global report on homicide on Thursday.

“In countries with high murder rates especially involving firearms, such as in Central America, 1 in 50 males aged 20 will be killed before they reach the age of 31–several hundred times higher than in some parts of Asia,” it said.

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Globally, men account for around 80 percent of perpetrators and victims and are most likely to be killed on the street. Women are most likely to be murdered in the home by a partner or family member, the report said.

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