Clara Zepeda
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, January 24, 2023, p. 4
In the first half of 2022, the number of homicides in Mexico decreased and is the lowest since 2017, revealed data from the preliminary report on deaths by homicide prepared by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
From January to June 2022, 15,561 homicides (preliminary figure) were registered in Mexico; This number of crimes is the lowest since 2017 (15,042) for the same period, which represents 1,901 fewer – equivalent to a 10.9 percent drop – compared to the same period of 2021 with definitive data.
Said homicides, basically identified from death certificates, compare with 21,203 total homicides and 12,945 intentional homicides reported by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System for the same period, described Julio Santaella, former president of Inegi.
In the first semester of last year, a preliminary rate of 12 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants was calculated nationwide, which was lower than that of the same period of 2021, which was 14, with definitive information.
Two out of every three homicides in the first six months of 2022 were committed with firearms.
Regarding the victims, the document detailed that 86.72 percent (13,495 homicides) were men and 1,875 women.
The Inegi specified that the main means used to cause homicide during the first half of last year was aggression with the firing of a firearm (68.1 percent), followed by a knife (9.7 percent), while 7 percent was generated by hanging, strangulation and suffocation. In the rest, other means were used.
Likewise, the homicide rate for men was higher than that for women.
In the case of men, the rate was 22 homicides per 100,000; Compared to the same period in 2021, a decrease of three cases was observed with the definitive information, since in that year it was 25.
For women, the rate was three per 100,000, so it remained the same as in 2021.
According to the figures of the Inegi in the first semesters of each year, from 1990 to 2022, the one that reported the fewest homicides was in 2007, with 4,428; last year they are just under three times more.
Preliminary figures for homicides in the first half of 2022 are derived from reported death statistics. They come from the administrative records of accidental and violent deaths generated by the federative entities and that the Inegi compiles every month. As sources, 239 Civil Registry Offices, 101 Forensic Medical Services and 163 Public Ministry agencies that had at least one homicide are considered.
