Crime Stats

The number of cumulative cases of violence committed against minors in Costa Rica has reached the highest figure in the last five years, according to a report released Thursday morning by the National Children's Hospital. To date, the medical center has registered 2,377 cases of child abuse this year alone.

OIJ official: “Victims are being tortured or mutilated, and most of these crimes occur in the streets. Previously we had information of at least six organized groups operating in Desamparados, but our intelligence now says that these gangs have merged into two major groups that are disputing control of the area.”

The isthmus connecting North and South America continues to lead the world in murder rates, with four of the top five rates in the world in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Belize.

Despite having only 9 percent of the world’s population, Latin America and the Caribbean register more than 30 percent of the world’s homicides, according to a security expert at the World Bank. INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC: Explore homicide statistics and their relationship to economic growth across Latin America.

The central cantons of Limón and San José top the country’s cantonal crime index, according to the latest report released this week by the Peace Vice Ministry – part of Costa Rica's Justice Ministry – and the Institute for Municipal Development. But the data, a summary of which was released on Tuesday and didn't include some serious crimes like rape and kidnapping, is three years old.