Study: Citizens in Latin America, Caribbean Consider Region the Least Safe in the World

Citizens in Latin America and the Caribbean, for the ninth consecutive year, have told Gallup, a United States based polling agency, that they feel less safe when compared to citizens in other parts of the world. The research, which was published in the Gallup's 2018 Global Law, and Order report, also underscored the challenges the region faces regarding creating safer communities.

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The survey revealed that Latin America and the Caribbean occupied five of the 10 top places where residents feel least safe.

Seu Jornal reported that Brazil, for the first time in its history, reached a homicide rate of more than 30 murders for every 100,000 residents. The South American country yielded another milestone in 2016, with more than 61,600 homicides that year and 71 percent of the victims being people of African or Indigenous descent.

Mexico and the Dominican Republic were also reported as being among the world's least secure countries, according to InSight Crime. The study also showed no nation in the region was among the 50 safest countries in the world.

A key point in the study highlighted that a mere 42 percent of respondents in Latin American and the Caribbean trust their local police forces.

Nevertheless, compared to last year's ranking, a sense of general safety improved in some countries. For example, El Salvador's score of 67 was touted as a “marked improvement” with researchers pointing to the Central American country's declining murder rate as a “slow improvement."

Roughly 1,000 adults from more than 140 countries were surveyed to compile the Gallup report, according to InSight Crime.