Congratulations to the winners of the 7th International Theses Contest on Public Security, Victimization and Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean!

Within the framework of the 4th International Conference on Governance, Crime and Justice Statistics in the City of Lima, Peru, it was held the award ceremony of the 7th International Theses Contest on Public Security, Victimization and Justice in Latin America and the Caribbean, organized by the Center of Excellence in Statistical information on Government, Crime, Victimization and Justice of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and INEGI.

During the award ceremony, Mr. Mario Palma, Vice President of the Information System of Government, Public Security and Justice of INEGI, Mr. Antonino De Leo, Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico (UNODC), Mr. Enrico Bisogno of UNODC Vienna, Mr. Javier Osorio of the University of Arizona and Ms. Salomé Flores, Coordinator of the Center of Excellence, were present at the presidium.

Ms. Salomé Flores thanked the interest of all the participants in the seventh issue of this International Competition. She stressed the importance of the development of this type of contest that encourages the use of official statistical information for academic research.

This year, 84 theses were received in total, of which juries of INEGI, UNODC, the Organization of American States and the University of Arizona, chose three winners: Alexis Cherem, a Mexican national, graduated from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), for the Bachelor’s category, José Antonio Mendoza, of Mexican nationality, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for the Master’s category; and, finally, for the Doctorate category, the winner is Hugo Morales, a Peruvian national, graduated from the University of Oporto. The winners gave a brief presentation of each of their works, which address issues related to the issue of self-defense, crime displacement and preventing addictions.

In the closing ceremony, Mr. Mario Palma emphasized the importance of carrying out this type of contest, where the initiative to present quality research focused on the use of statistical data is recognized, and he made the invitation to join efforts to transcend the use of the data and achieve the social application of the data among the population. Many congratulations to the winners and the deepest thanks to the members of the jury who supported the contest this year.