Peru: Insecurities Rise in Lima Amid High Crime Rates

Eighty-nine percent of Lima’s population believe they will fall victim to a crime, the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI) said in its most recent report.

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A recent study by the INEI, shows the public’s confidence hanging by a thread as reports show that 27.9 percent or three out of every 10 residents have been victimized by the capital’s crime sectors since January.

Among the reports, petty theft which occupies roughly 14.7 percent of police statistics, other more serious acts of crime include homicide, extortion, gender violence, harassment, fraud, human trafficking, as well as gang and drug activity, the Public Ministry and the National Police (PNP) says.

As a result, the city’s crime rate puts Peru second in the topmost perceivably dangerous countries in Latin America.

Colonel PNP Gustavo Davila Angulo, director of Criminologists Associates of Peru, told La Republica, "Two important factors feed the perception of insecurity: impunity and corruption. Citizens feel at the mercy of criminals because they act without being punished and this occurs due to the encystment of corruption at different levels.

"We are 31 million citizens against a million criminals, (the public’s) at an incredible disadvantage," Angulo said.

According to Deputy Minister Silvia Loli, since the beginning of 2018, there have been 65,000 cases registered at the Emergency Woman’s Center, a 24-hour help center which offers judicial, psychological, or social assistance.

"We have a data of the administrative attention, now we are at an average of almost 10,000 cases attended per month, we have around 65,000 cases so far (January-July 2018)," Loli said.

A project recently launched by the national news outlet, America Noticias, seeks to bring awareness and trigger police action by charting the various cases of femicides as they are reported across the country.

So far, 83 cases of victims of gender violence have appeared on the digital map, with locations, descriptions, and all known information of the incidents registered on the online project entitled Feminicidios 2018 (Femicides 2018).