“Other crimes” rise
While the crime of kidnapping in Mexico decreases year after year, the National Executive Secretariat of Public Security reports a sustained increase in the category of “Victims of other crimes that threaten personal freedom.”
In the first year of the president’s government in the country, 1,629 kidnappings were reported, while 2023 closed with 844, which means a reduction of 49%.
However, the number of victims of other crimes that violate personal freedom has increased by 59% between 2018 and 2024, which has led civil society organizations to warn of a possible reclassification of crimes such as kidnapping.
That is to say, some deprivations of liberty have not been recorded as kidnapping, but rather in the category of “other crimes.”
In an interview with Expansión Política, Luis Carlos Sánchez, researcher for the organization Causa en Común, warned of the increase in that category a, since the word “other” does not describe what crimes are being referred to.
“We are noticing a possible manipulation of figures, we see an under-reporting through reclassification of crimes. There is one category that has increased: other crimes, we have seen that in 2015 it was a category that had some not so significant records, but in recent years we have seen an upturn,” he said.
