{"id":1068,"date":"2008-09-30T05:20:53","date_gmt":"2008-09-30T13:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bbrace.laughingsquid.net\/wordpress\/?p=1068"},"modified":"2008-09-30T05:20:53","modified_gmt":"2008-09-30T13:20:53","slug":"murder-capitals-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/?p=1068","title":{"rendered":"Murder Capitals of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Caracas, Venezuela<\/strong><br \/>\nPopulation: 3.2 million<br \/>\nMurder rate: 130 per 100,000 residents (official)<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s happening: The capital of Ch\u00e1vez country, Caracas has become far more dangerous in recent years than any South American city, even beating out the once notorious Bogot\u00e1. What\u2019s worse, the city\u2019s official homicide statistics likely fall short of the mark because they omit prison-related murders as well as deaths that the state never gets around to properly \u201ccategorizing.\u201d The numbers also don\u2019t count those who died while \u201cresisting arrest,\u201d suggesting that Caracas\u2019s cops\u2014already known for their brutality against student protesters\u2014might be cooking the books. Many have pointed the finger at El Presidente, whose government has failed to tackle the country\u2019s rising rates of violent crime. In fact, since Ch\u00e1vez took over in 1998, Venezuela\u2019s official homicide rate has climbed 67 percent\u2014mostly due to increased drug and gang violence. Ram\u00f3n Rodr\u00edguez Chac\u00edn, who recently resigned as interior minister, claimed in July that homicide has dropped 27 percent since January\u2014but experts say he\u2019s just playing with numbers. As for Caracas, some speculate that its murder rate is closer to 160 per 100,000.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cape Town, South Africa<\/strong><br \/>\nPopulation: 3.5 million<br \/>\nMurder rate: 62 per 100,000 inhabitants<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s happening: A European bastion in the heart of turbulent South Africa, picturesque Cape Town nonetheless has the country\u2019s highest murder rate. The city\u2019s homicides usually take place in suburban townships rather than in the more upscale urban areas where tourists visit. According to the South African Police Service, most of the Cape Town area\u2019s violent crimes happen between people who know one another, including a horrific case last year in which four males doused a female friend in gasoline and lit her on fire. Occurring just outside city limits, the incident apparently happened after the assailants had taken hard drugs, the use of which has risen along with Cape Town\u2019s violent crime rate. The whopping 12.7 percent rise in the city\u2019s murder rate from 2006 to 2007 certainly has local politicians worried, especially as South Africa prepares to host the 2010 World Cup. The government has hired more police officers to prepare for the tournament, which could help cut crime in soccer-fan hot spots. But until better efforts are made to police Cape Town\u2019s poverty-stricken townships, it\u2019s unlikely that the murder rate\u2014an average of 5.9 per day\u2014will see any major drop.<\/p>\n<p><strong>New Orleans, United States<\/strong><br \/>\nPopulation: 220,614 to 312,000 (2007); estimates vary due to displacement of people after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.<br \/>\nMurder rate: Estimates range from 67 (New Orleans Police Department) to 95 (Federal Bureau of Investigation) per 100,000<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s happening: With its grinding poverty, an inadequate school system, a prevalence of public housing, and a high incarceration rate, the Big Easy has long been plagued with a high rate of violent crime. Katrina didn\u2019t help. Since the hurricane struck in 2005, drug dealers have been fighting over a smaller group of users, leading to many killings. On just one four-block stretch of Josephine Street, in the city center, four people were murdered in 2007 and 15 people shot, including a double homicide on Christmas day. A precise murder rate is hard to pinpoint because the population is swelling quickly, approaching its pre-Katrina numbers. Whether you use New Orleans\u2019s own figures or the FBI\u2019s, however, the city remains the most deadly in the United States, easily surpassing Detroit and Baltimore with 46 and 45 murders per 100,000 people, respectively.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Moscow, Russia<\/strong><br \/>\nPopulation: 10.4 million<br \/>\nMurder rate: 9.6 per 100,000 (estimate)<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s happening: Moscow\u2019s murder rate is nothing compared with that of Caracas or Cape Town, but the city still ranks way above other major European capitals. London, Paris, Rome, and Madrid, for instance, all had rates below 2 murders per 100,000 in 2006. The Russian capital\u2019s homicide rate is down 15 percent this year from last, but the recent surge in hate crimes\u2014including the deadly beating of a Tajik carpenter by a gang of youths on Valentine\u2019s Day\u2014suggests that the lull might be temporary. Sixty ethnically motivated killings have already happened this year, part of a sixfold increase in hate crimes committed in the city during 2007. Several of the murders have been attributed to ultranationalist skinhead groups like the \u201cSpas,\u201d who killed 11 people in a 2006 bombing of a multiethnic market in northern Moscow. The Russian government has finally stepped up to combat the problem, assisting migrant groups and cracking down on street gangs. Still, the continued rise in extremist attacks is worrisome. And along with migrants, journalists and other high-profile people in Moscow might also want to be a little wary in Russia\u201462 contract murders took place in the country in 2005, according to official statistics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea<\/strong><br \/>\nPopulation: 254,200 (2000 census)<br \/>\nMurder rate: 54 per 100,000 (2004 official figure)<br \/>\nWhat\u2019s happening: The capital of island country Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby might seem like a surprising addition to this list. But its high violent crime rates, along with high levels of police corruption and gang activity, helped earn the city the dubious title of \u201cworst city\u201d in a 2004 Economist Intelligence Unit survey. With gangs called \u201craskols\u201d controlling the city centers and unemployment rates hovering around 80 percent, it\u2019s easy to see how Port Moresby beat out the 130 other survey contenders. Port Moresby\u2019s police don\u2019t seem to be helping the crime situation\u2014last November, five officers were charged with offenses ranging from murder to rape. And in August, the city\u2019s police barracks were put on a three-month curfew due to a recent slew of bank heists reportedly planned inside the stations by officers and their co-conspirators. Rising tensions between Chinese migrants and native Papua New Guineans are also cause for alarm, as are reports of increased activity of organized Chinese crime syndicates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caracas, Venezuela Population: 3.2 million Murder rate: 130 per 100,000 residents (official) What\u2019s happening: The capital of Ch\u00e1vez country, Caracas has become far more dangerous in recent years than any South American city, even beating out the once notorious Bogot\u00e1. What\u2019s worse, the city\u2019s official homicide statistics likely fall short of the mark because they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[10,30,32,42],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1068\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bbrace.net\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}