To track instances of homicide in certain locations, statisticians have come up with a standard known as the homicide rate, which is the number of homicides reported per 100,000 residents over a given period of time, usually one year.
On a national scale, Mexico’s homicide rate has pinged up and downfalling throughout the 1990s to a rate roughly comparable to that of the United States.
Starting in 2007, reported homicides begin to spike, possibly coinciding with increases of opioid and methamphetamine use in the U.S. The rate reached its peak in 2018 with 29.58 homicide deaths per 100,000, and now appears to be slowly dropping once again over the past five years.
Violence against women is also a particular concern for the Mexican government, as female victims have proportionally increased 135 percent since 2015.
The most likely problems connected to these homicide trends are drug trafficking, money laundering operations and corrupt police forces which are alleged to be under control by organized crime groups.
Like many other countries, cities in Mexico are often witness to gang violence. Mexico also contains hundreds of more rural areas which are relatively free of local criminal gangs and drug cartel conflict.
