UNODC-INEGI and SG-SICA Strengthen Regional Capacity to Improve the Measurement of Victimization and Safety in Central American and Caribbean Countries

As part of the capacity-building efforts led by the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA), Justo Rojas, a specialist in crime statistics at the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence, presented the progress made by the Initiative for the Crime Victimization Survey in Latin America and the Caribbean (VICLAC), a UNODC-led effort to promote the production of comparable statistics on victimization and security in the region.

The VICLAC Initiative is based on a harmonized methodological framework that can be adapted to national contexts, which has helped strengthen the measurement of victimization in Latin America and the Caribbean. To date, 14 countries in the region have fully or partially adopted its standards, including several countries in Central America and the Caribbean (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia). These advances are strengthening the production of comparable data for monitoring Sustainable Development Goal 16 and designing evidence-based public policies.

Similarly, the session addressed the importance of victimization surveys as a fundamental source for measuring phenomena not captured by administrative records, particularly the underreported crime rate, perceptions of insecurity, crime reporting, and trust in institutions. This information helps identify risk factors and vulnerable populations, thereby strengthening the design and evaluation of security policies.

Key indicators such as crime prevalence and incidence, perceptions of insecurity, crime reporting, and trust in institutions were also analyzed, along with their usefulness in identifying risk factors, vulnerable populations, and specific needs for territorial intervention.

Finally, the Center of Excellence presented the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence Victimization Survey Atlas, a tool that compiles information from official surveys across different regions of the world, allowing users to review the methodologies used and 15 indicators on victimization, crime reporting, perceptions of safety, sexual violence, corruption, extortion, and other phenomena related to public safety, thereby facilitating access to and comparative analysis of this evidence.

Would you like to learn how countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are strengthening the measurement of victimization? Explore the VICLAC Initiative and discover implementation experiences in the region, as well as the UNODC-INEGI Center of Excellence’s Atlas of Victimization Surveys, which compiles comparable methodologies and indicators to support the design of evidence-based public policies.