Santo Domingo. - Dominican Republic is one of seven of the continent’s countries with the least crime victims per year, ahead of Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the United States, Guatemala, Bolivia, El Salvador, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Argentina.

The report “Political Culture of democracy in the Dominican Republic, 2008: The impact of governance” by the organization Barometer of the Americas states that the number of Dominicans who reported being the victim of a crime rose from 6.8% to 16.2% from 2004 to 2006, but fell to 14.8% in 2008.

The figure shows that instead of an increase, the victimization by criminals fell 1.4% in the country. “The groups which reported the highest percentage of victimization by crime were men, youngsters, inhabitants in the big cities and people with a higher level of education.”

The research found the region’s lowest percentage of victimization by crime in Jamaica, with 8.3% reports in the last year, followed by Panama, with 8.4%; Belize with 10.6%; Honduras was fourth with 13.7%; Canada, 14.2% and Haiti, 14.3%.

Perception of security

With a sampling of 1,507 people, the poll concluded that the perception of insecurity among Dominicans is relatively moderate, as of the 23 nations in the study, 14 have higher levels, whereas 39.5% of those surveyed said they feel unsafe, to the 54.5% who affirmed feeling “very safe.”

This level of perception of personal insecurity has negative effects on political tolerance, the legitimacy of political institutions and interpersonal confidence, the report says, and affirms that the population displays “certain confidence” in the judicial system’s capacity to confront criminality, and to capture and condemn the guilty, but notes a distrust in the National Police’s capacity to protect citizens. “Only 42% of the Dominicans surveyed said the Police protects, although this percentage was even lower in 2006 (30%).”

The report concludes that in 2008, 48% of the Dominican population confides in the Police to capture the culprit of a crime, an average perception which is the highest in Latin America’s other 17 countries, and in the region surpassed only by Jamaica.