Crime in Mexico

Partial crime data based on police cases reported by each state to the SESNSP. Most states only include those municipalities with more than 50,000 people. All rates are per 100,000 people. Best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari.

Notes:

1. In many states the number of cases doesn't match the actual number of victims (there can be more than one victim per police case)
2. The states of Chihuahua and Baja California underreport the number of homicides. In spite of what the data says, so far this year Juárez has had a higher murder rate than Acapulco.
3. The mass graves found in Durango, Durango and San Fernando, Tamaulipas were not included in the homicide totals (that's about 400 missing homicides!)
4. Since the data consists mostly of municipalities with more than 50,000 people, the drug plant growing areas of Guerrero look less violent than they really are
5. There was no data for the municipality of Gómez Palacios which is part of the metro area of La Laguna
6. Culiacán and Navolato are not officially a metropolitan area

Sources:

1. Drug plant eradication data from: El mapa del cultivo de drogas en México, by Carlos Resa Nestares
2. Meth lab location data from various newspapers: Spreadsheet
3. Map and coordinates of each municipality from the INEGI
4. Mexican highway shapefile from BTS North American Transportation Atlas
5. Crime info from: SESNSP
6. Population estimates based on historical data by CONAPO/COLMEX and the 2010 Census

Author: Diego Valle-Jones