Global murder rates have declined slightly, but remain very high in the Americas and parts of Africa, according to a new United Nations study released Thursday, according to LatinPost.com.
Homicide rates in southern Africa and Central America are more than four times higher than the global average of 6.2 victims per 100,000 people, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report said, LatinPost.com reported.
The figures chronicle murder rates in 2012, according to LatinPost.com. The global average was 6.9 in 2010, the year of the last previous study.
The city of San Pedro Sula has been considered the most violent city in Honduras, the country with the highest murder rate in the world: 90.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the study, LatinPost.com reported.
Someone in Honduras is almost 15 times more likely to be murdered than an average human being, and people run an even greater risk in San Pedro Sula, where death comes so quickly victims often don't see it coming, according to LatinPost.com.
Antonio Mazzitelli, the Mexico representative for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said the region suffers because "unfortunately there is a history of violence, and secondly the strong presence of criminals and organized crime, and these are factors that surely encourage the use of violence," LatinPost.com reported.
U.N. policy analyst Jean-Luc Lemahieu said the figures show that while Canada and the U.S. remain below the global average with the homicide rate at 4.7 per 100,000 inhabitants, while other countries in Central and South America are making little progress, according to the LatinPost.com.
South Africa still has a murder rate of about 31 per 100,000 people but has seen a steady reduction in the last five years, LatinPost.com reported. Homicide rates are lowest in Europe, Asia and Oceania, according to the report, which was released in London.
It estimates that only about 43 percent of murders end with a conviction of the person responsible, according to LatinPost.com. Even countries with stubborn problems of violence, like Venezuela, with a murder rate of 53.7 per 100,000, came in far behind Honduras.
