1. THE BIG PICTURE This chapter provides a snapshot of intentional homicide through an increasingly focused lens. Beginning at the global level and ending at the subnational level, it subsequently looks at homicide from the perspective of age and sex before analysing homicide trends from 1955 to the present. Whether across regions, sub-regions and countries, age and sex groups, and even over time, the picture of homicide it reveals is one of marked contrasts.
The global and regional picture UNODC estimates that deaths resulting from intentional homicide amounted to a total of 437,0001 at the global level in 2012. The largest share of those was registered in the Americas (36 per cent) and large shares were also recorded in Africa and Asia (31 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively). Europe (5 per cent) and Oceania (0.3 per cent) accounted for the lowest shares of homicide by region. Between 2010 and 2012 the number of homicide victims decreased by 11-14 per cent in Oceania and Europe, and increased by 8.5 per cent in the Americas, yet the fact that UNODC’s 2012 global estimate is lower than its previous estimate in 2010 (468,000 victims) is almost entirely due to methodological revisions of the estimation procedure2 1 The global count of victims of intentional homicide, based on sources available at the country level, varies between a low estimate of 324,000 victims and a high estimate of 518,000 victims (see Methodological annex for more information on the calculation of estimate intervals). 2 Due to a lack of national data on homicides in many African countries and a number of countries in Asia, UNODC makes use of estimates produced by the World Health Organization (WHO). Such data result from indirect estimation methods of the number of deaths resulting from all causes, including homicide (see Methodological annex for further information). These methods were substantially reviewed by the WHO to
Fig. 1.1: Total number of homicides, by region (2012 or latest year)
Americas 157,000 Africa 135,000 Asia 122,000 Europe 22,000 Oceania 1,100 0
50,000
100,000 150,000 200,000
Number of homicides Source: UNODC Homicide Statistics (2013). The bars represent total homicide counts based on the source selected at the country level, with low and high estimates derived from total counts based on additional sources existing at the country level.
of homicide victims in Africa and some countries in Asia. The total estimated number of homicides in 2012 leads to an average global homicide rate of 6.2 per 100,000 population (see figure 1.2).3 But disparities in regional homicide rates are large and clearly point to a high intensity of homicidal violence in the Americas, whereas in Asia, Europe and Oceania, homicide rates fall below the global average.
produce the 2012 estimates. 3 The global homicide rate is provided with an interval estimate, with a low estimate of 4.6 and a high estimate of 7.4 victims of homicide per 100,000 population.
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