Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Violence and homicide in Mexico: a global health issue

2015; Elsevier BV; Volume: 385; Issue: 9968 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0140-6736(15)60234-3

1474-547X

Jennie Gamlin,

Suicide and Self-Harm Studies

Homicide rate in Mexico more than doubled between 2007 and 2012, from 9·34 to 18·57deaths per 100 000 people.1Instituto Nacional de EstadísticaGeografía y InformaciónPorcentaje de muertes por homicidio con respecto al total de muertes violentas por entidad federativa y sexo, 2004 a 2013.http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/sisept/default.aspx?t=mvio24&s=est&c=22651Google Scholar In 2012, 25 967 murders per year were recorded,1Instituto Nacional de EstadísticaGeografía y InformaciónPorcentaje de muertes por homicidio con respecto al total de muertes violentas por entidad federativa y sexo, 2004 a 2013.http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/sisept/default.aspx?t=mvio24&s=est&c=22651Google Scholar and 33 040 had already been reported by Nov 30, 2014.2Secretaria EjecutivoInforme de víctimas de homicidio, secuestro y extorsión.http://www.secretariadoejecutivo.gob.mx/work/models/SecretariadoEjecutivo/Resource/1406/1/images/Victimaspublicacionnov14.pdfDate: 2014Google Scholar By comparison, in England and Wales 552 murders were recorded in 2013, 0·98 per 100 000 individuals.3Office of National StatisticsCitizens Report.http://www.citizensreportuk.org/reports/murders-fatal-violence-uk.htmlGoogle Scholar Although these figures might not be the highest in Latin America, they hide important regional and sex differences, with murder rates of men ten times higher than those of women, and reaching 164 deaths per 100 000 in the state of Chihuahua, and 94 per 100 000 in Guerrero.1Instituto Nacional de EstadísticaGeografía y InformaciónPorcentaje de muertes por homicidio con respecto al total de muertes violentas por entidad federativa y sexo, 2004 a 2013.http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/sisept/default.aspx?t=mvio24&s=est&c=22651Google Scholar According to official statistics 136 234 people have been murdered since 2007,2Secretaria EjecutivoInforme de víctimas de homicidio, secuestro y extorsión.http://www.secretariadoejecutivo.gob.mx/work/models/SecretariadoEjecutivo/Resource/1406/1/images/Victimaspublicacionnov14.pdfDate: 2014Google Scholar with at least another 30 000 individuals missing.4Human Rights WatchVanished: The Disappeared of Mexico's Drug War.HRW.org/news/2014/01/08/vanished-disappeared-mexicos-drug-warGoogle Scholar In Mexico, little attempt has been made to investigate this issue—this epidemic—from a public health perspective, nor to understand the social, political, economic, and structural causes in the contexts of both victim and perpetrator. Analysis of national databases suggests that homicide rates are highest in men aged 20–39 years. In 2010, homicide represented 12·2% of all deaths nationally, but this proportion reached 45·6% of deaths in men in Chihuahua state and 32·4% of deaths in men in Guerrero.1Instituto Nacional de EstadísticaGeografía y InformaciónPorcentaje de muertes por homicidio con respecto al total de muertes violentas por entidad federativa y sexo, 2004 a 2013.http://www3.inegi.org.mx/sistemas/sisept/default.aspx?t=mvio24&s=est&c=22651Google Scholar A multivariate analysis5Gonzalez Perez G Vega Lopez MG Cabrera Pivaral CE Vega Lopez A Munoz de la Torre A Mortalidad por homicidios en Meéxico: tendencias, variaciones socio-geograáficas y factores asociados.Ciencia & Saude Colectiva. 2012; 17: 3195-3208Crossref PubMed Scopus (31) Google Scholar done by researchers at Guadalajara University found lawlessness (or failing judicial system), drug trafficking, alcohol or drug consumption, and basic education dropout to be the key determinants (in this order) of increased rates in some states. However, Cunjama and Garcia6Cunjama López ED, García Huitrón A. Narcotráfico y territorios en conflicto en México. El Cotidiano (Mexico DF), April, 2014: 184.Google Scholar suggest that it is poverty and economic inequality and not the judicial system that are the principal determinants of violence.6Cunjama López ED, García Huitrón A. Narcotráfico y territorios en conflicto en México. El Cotidiano (Mexico DF), April, 2014: 184.Google Scholar The Mexican Government seems unable to guarantee the safety of its population or to address the structural causes of this epidemic. Although the international global health community does look at the public health implications of violence, its focus has mainly been on gender-based and domestic forms of violence. It now needs to turn its attention to other forms of violence and particularly the form that mainly affects men, in whom the largest burden of mortality lies. We, the global health community, are in a position to exert pressure on the Mexican Government to deal with this crisis in two ways. First, by recognising homicide as a public health problem, and one that is inextricably linked to poverty, inequality, educational attainment, impunity, and corruption. This epidemic cannot be dismissed simply because it is linked to organised crime and we need to discuss this issue in terms of its real underlying causes. Second, we need to better understand this violence, and potentially learn from other experiences. Finally, international justice systems are in a position to take a more active role regarding state violations of human rights, genocide, and ethnocide, and support from the global health community would greatly strengthen their case. Now is the time for us to talk about Mexico's epidemic of homicide. I declare no competing interests.