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United Nations.– Latin America has the highest homicide rate for young adults in the world, with the Caribbean a close second, a global study by a Brazilian research group shows.

Based on figures from 83 countries, a person age 15 to 24 is almost 15 times more likely to be murdered in Latin America than in Canada, says the group. The spread is even greater when Latin American rates are compared with those in several of the safer European and Asian countries.

"The probability of a young Latin American being a homicide victim is 30 times greater than for a young person in Europe as a whole, and more than 70 times greater than for young people in Greece, Hungary, England, Austria, Japan or Ireland," write the researchers.

Map of Violence: The Young People of Latin America is produced by Brasilia-based Latin American Technological Information Network. Its researchers drew on recorded murder totals from 2002 to 2005, and also give historical trends as well as overall murder rates.

The most dangerous country studied is El Salvador, where the annual murder rate for young people is 92 per 100,000, and rising. Murder rates for the young also are increasing in Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Paraguay, the study shows.

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COMMENTS
6 comment(s)
Written by: yumnuk3, 29 Nov 2008 10:10 AM
From: United States, ø„¸¨°º¤ø„¸¸„ø¤º°¨¸„ø¤º°¨
Stupidity,ignorance and cowardliness at its finest, Congratulations

Get an education, get a job, do something with your life.
Written by: generoso, 1 Dec 2008 8:03 AM
From: United States, DR
This study did not take into account the term "interchange of shots with the police" that is widely used and denotes a way of suicide as well.
Written by: DominicanAmerican, 1 Dec 2008 11:38 AM
From: United States
We've got to instill values in our children so this doesn't continue.
Written by: JD_Dominguez, 1 Dec 2008 5:18 PM
From: United States, Reality Check
The whole RD Gov & justice system is rotten to the core! The military, police & DNCD are in bed with drug traffickers who also protect the Tigueres like Choppo (Jose Annibal Lopez Pichardo) to lead a local drug distribution gang & micro traffickers in my Santiago barrio of Los Platanitos (Ensanche Caonabo).

The streets are left to the gangs while good citizens have to worry about the gun ban. RD Gov officials do NOT want to undermine the corrupt status quo because it would mean a loss of excess profits. In the US our officials in the Embassy in Santo Dominican are impotent to exert any pressure nor show any leadership.

These dynamic would not be tolerated if Cuba were used as a springboard to get illegal drugs into the US & territories. Thus on the RD streets and barrios it is a struggle to survive! Kids pass drug dealers daily just going to school as new addicts are created!

So, why be surprised on the outcome? Fannin is clueless and does NOT care!

Written by: Trujillo, 14 Dec 2008 6:35 PM
From: Dominican Republic
This can be solved, if you're willing to go to hell so the rest of the people in this country could have a decent life without the fear of being shot, robbed, raped, etc. I rather fear the authorities than a bunch of street thugs. When I hear stories (from a relative in Santo Domingo) about a thug that beheaded a neighbor and walked around the streets showing the head of his victim and telling everyone in the neighborhood that's what happens when people disrespect him, it boils my blood, and what makes it even worse is that that man is still free. If the government is too afraid, then move over and let someone else gladly sacrifice his or her life.
Written by: gatitapequena, 14 Dec 2008 11:07 PM
From: United States, Somewhere in the World
In our latin american culture our youth are running around with a lot of anger on their shoulders, simply because of a lack of family structure, fathers who just up and leave, leave their kids behind, for the environment to raise, most latinos just don't get reared right, because generation after generation things don't ever change, only you as the single parent have to reflect on whats happening around you and how things have been in your life to be able to do something different, however, it doesn't matter how much you try to give a child a good environment, and knowledge, and education, he/she still is the decision maker for his/her own life, and you can't blame yourself for the wrong choices your offspring make, they will or they won't learn from it, plain and simple.
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