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Threatened with firearms, knifes, sticks, rods, tubes, and other blunt objects , at least one million people suffered both mild and serious injuries as a result of crime in Mexico , mainly due to armed robberies and assault, according to the 2018 National Victims Survey (ENVIPE) conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) .
It was estimated that delinquency victims –mostly males- lost a total of 1.9 billion pesos , which is equal to an average of 2,197 pesos per individual , out of which at least one billion were spent on health services to care for wounds inflicted by the criminals, and another 927.9 million pesos were used to replace stolen cellphones , cash, watches, rings, and other electronic devices.
The statistical exercise shows that nearly half of the victims (around 48.4%) suffered some sort of physical aggression, 21.2% of which were shot with firearms at the moment of the crimes . In 60.3% of armed robbery cases, the assailant knew the victim.
The states in which the largest number of victims who were physically harmed during robberies was registered were: The State of Mexico, Mexico City, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Puebla, Veracruz, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Yucatán, and San Luis Potosí .
The urban spaces where people felt most unsafe were ATMs, followed by banks, public transport, streets, highways, markets, parks and recreation centers, malls, cars, school, and finally the workplace.
The survey showed that a total of 33.6 million crimes were committed last year with a number of 24.5 million victims , which was 2.5% more than in 2016. Most fell victim to robbery in the street or public transport, extortion, fraud, total or partial vehicle theft, verbal threats, burglary, kidnapping, abduction, sex crimes, and assault .
Francisco Rivas Rodríguez, head of the National Citizen Observatory (ONC)
, claimed that these figures indicate an upward trend in violent crimes, particularly regarding street and public transport robbery, cases in which victims are more likely to lose their lives.
He stated that there was a growing risk of death, since the use of firearms in criminal acts had increased throughout all 32 states in the country , assuring that “the investigation of criminal behavior in Mexico for the prevention of illegal activity has proven ineffective. The rising number of reports should contribute to intelligence building,” Rivas Rodríguez stressed.
Guillermo Garduño Valero, an academic from the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM)
, emphasized that the rising number of crimes had an impact on the victims’ health, economic development, and personal property.
“I would say that society’s fear is nurtured by what we have witnessed in recent years. The amount of people being shot and injured, as well as other factors related to insecurity, have cast a shadow upon the Mexican people, inhibiting them from developing a healthy life. This has become a very serious problem ,” he concluded.
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