Argentina Safety Versus Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica

[travelnut]

Argentina has the second lowest intentional homicide rate in the western hemisphere after Canada according to the United Nations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate

Yet many people say that the safest countries in Latin America are Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Many people also say that Argentina "isn't that safe".

So then who is right? How can Argentina be "not be that safe" if it has the second lowest intentional homicide rate in the western hemisphere? How can Uruguay and Costa Rica be safer than Argentina when these countries have a much higher intentional homicide rate than Argentina?

Thank you for your thoughts on this.

 

[caitij]

My guess is that most people arent that worried about being murdered here as much as they are about being robbed or maybe suffering a violent attack, which is why they consider it to be less safe. Not sure, but just a guess.

 

[ajoknoblauch]

Why, I wonder, are there are no school massacres with automatic weapons in any of these countries?

 

[lamarque]

Uhm just some guess, could be because of 1) There is to much media cover and repetitions over the day of the crimes while in the other country’s that doesn’t happen as it already not news at all, so that why here there is a bigger feeling of insecurity even having much lower rates of crime that the aforementioned countries. 2) My second guess will be that maybe is a very safe country in the mean that the people don't kill so much, but maybe they steal more? hum i think i need to work more in this second guess as it doesn’t sound very feasible at least not statistically what normally happen is countrys with more crime have higher murder rates 3) My third guess would require a little bit more of imagination, imagine if in Canada that is in the first position as the country with less murders per capita there is a change and in few years the murder rate duplicate, i'm sure they will feel quite insecure as they will note the change in the security, but in global number they will still be between the most secures countries of the western hemisphere as to reach a level of violence as for example Venezuela they need to rise the insecurity 40 or more times, so that would explain why people speak so much about it and is so much over the media but the real numbers are not really that bad (this last theory have a real problem, that is that the murder rate is actually going down from 2003 to 2012 "not sure about 2013 do"). Anyway just trying to put some logic, it can be as well that none of the theories i have write are correct, who knows.

 

[lejohnson]

Intentional homicide is not the only crime that makes people feel unsafe. Many homicides that you read about in the newspapers in Argentina, fore example, are the result of a robbery or attempted robbery. That, to me, is even scarier than an intentional homicide. The fact that I could be in a cafe or a store and get shot as a "side effect" of that place being robbed at random is much more disturbing and unsettling than thinking about someone planning my murder for a specific motive.

Also, the fact that criminals operate with almost complete impunity due to the corruption and absolute uselessness of the police and judicial system doesn't help. I have a good friend whose entire house was robbed clean, all electronics, all money, all her husband's band equipment, everything! And the cops were unwilling to do anything. Not only that, but they told her (she is Argentine and not from a very wealthy background) that they were unable to investigate since she and her husband had entered the house after the robbery occurred and somehow walking into the house contaminated the crime scene so they could not investigate.

Maybe in Argentina some crazy person holding a grudge isn't planning your murder, but a group of professional criminals can steal your entire life and the police can refuse to do anything about it. And you can be killed in a robbery, be raped, or be the victim of any other number of violent crimes and the police will not do very much about it. That to me is absolutely frightening and a serious problem.

 

[cmmiori]

I believe that argentina hasn't posted crime statistics for the past few years. Even if they have I would trust them about as much as I trust INDEK statistics.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

They were unwilling to do anything because there was nothing left for them. If you have insurance the police will go in, walk out with whatever they want and hand the justice department official a large extended list. This from the horses mouth, a friend at the justice department. The police in the city are paid 3 times that of the province, so anyone with a half an idea joins the metropolitan police. You can imagine what is left over in the provinces!

I was warned (the person I know has 20+ years experience in the Justice dept) never to trust the police. Calling the police for a stolen goods case is absolutely futile, you probably need a signature or case no. for your insurance claim but if the police can benefit from that they will. Bribes or free goods will be required.

I don't believe anyone would dare run on an anti-police corruption ticket so this is not going away. Best to hope you never need their services.

 

[cmmiori]

Veteran: maybe argentine criminals are more into individual murder than school massacres...maybe they don't have easy access to automatic weapons...

 

[lamarque]

Intentional homicide is not the only crime that makes people feel unsafe. Many homicides that you read about in the newspapers in Argentina, fore example, are the result of a robbery or attempted robbery. That, to me, is even scarier than an intentional homicide. The fact that I could be in a cafe or a store and get shot as a "side effect" of that place being robbed at random is much more disturbing and unsettling than thinking about someone planning my murder for a specific motive.

Also, the fact that criminals operate with almost complete impunity due to the corruption and absolute uselessness of the police and judicial system doesn't help. I have a good friend whose entire house was robbed clean, all electronics, all money, all her husband's band equipment, everything! And the cops were unwilling to do anything. Not only that, but they told her (she is Argentine and not from a very wealthy background) that they were unable to investigate since she and her husband had entered the house after the robbery occurred and somehow walking into the house contaminated the crime scene so they could not investigate.

Maybe in Argentina some crazy person holding a grudge isn't planning your murder, but a group of professional criminals can steal your entire life and the police can refuse to do anything about it. And you can be killed in a robbery, be raped, or be the victim of any other number of violent crimes and the police will not do very much about it. That to me is absolutely frightening and a serious problem.

You are mistaken what numbers are involved in this statistics, if you get shoot as a side effect of a robbery you are counted in there so that side effect of crime are counted already in this statistic, the only way to not be counted in this numbers is if you die by an accident example car crash or illness, if someone kill you to steal something from a place you are counted there, there is no index that count private assassins that killed you with the porpoise and plan of killing you. Killing rates are not possible to fake as easily as the inflation, this rankings are normally extremely accurate, and not easy to fake, another thing will be a stealing Index that depend on people denounce on the crime (They don’t do this because will never be accurate and people of different countrys are more or less prone to denounce a stealing)

 

[camberiu]

Yet many people say that the safest countries in Latin America are Chile, Uruguay, and Costa Rica. Many people also say that Argentina "isn't that safe".

I consider Argentina to be very safe overall. Lots of petty theft, scams and even burglars. But the odds of someone suffering some type of violent crime here are quite low.