El Salvador's Dramatic Decrease in Homicides
The result from a total crackdown on gang violence
Hi, and welcome to a new edition of World Charts. Today, we’re looking at crime data from the UNODC.
El Salvador has long been one of the most unsafe countries in the World, but in recent years, their homicide rates have decreased dramatically thanks to a total crackdown on suspected gang members.
Today, they have more prisoners per capita than any other nation, and the results have been fantastic. But at what cost?
Data visualization
In the following data visualization, I’ve compared the homicide rate per 100,000 population for El Salvador and the United States using data from the UNODC.
A philosophical question
Human rights activists question if all prisoners in El Salvador are guilty, but the harsh methods are popular among most of the population.
The million-dollar question is, at what point does the risk of imprisoning innocents outweigh the risk of innocents getting killed by criminals?