Crime in Paraguay – statistics & facts
Paraguay is one of the most peaceful countries in South America with a global peace score of 2.04. This reflects the low participation in domestic and international conflicts, but the deficient levels of societal safety and security. Even though the nation registered a homicide rate of approximately 6.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, it still has one of the lowest values for the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Nevertheless, 28 percent of people over 18 are afraid of being victims of a crime. The most reported type of crime in the country in 2023 was family violence. In that year, there were over 65,000 cases of theft of various degrees of severity.
Regarding the theft of vehicles, motorcycles constitute the most prevalent means of transportation stolen. As of September 2024, the number of thefts cases reported exceeded 3,000 occurrences. The number of motor vehicle thefts was three times less than the number of motorcycles taken in the same year.
The decreasing number of homicides
The number of homicide victims registered a constant decrease from 2010 until 2019. And during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of victims reached the lowest in the last decade. Contract killings in the first half of the year also decreased during the same period, with a reduction of almost 75 percent in 2023 when only nine cases were recorded in the first half of the year.Drug related crimes
The establishment of new drug routes and the expansion of some criminal organizations in the border areas between Paraguay and Brazil led to an escalation of violence in the department of Amambay. Indeed, it is in this department that most of the contract killings happened. Similarly, the number of people arrested for drug trafficking increased in 2023. Drug crime in the country is estimated to have cost nearly 192 million US dollars in 2023.Property crime
In 2022, there were 2,136 cases of robberies carried out by motorcyclists . It affects mostly highly populated regions of Paraguay, with the Central department being the area with the highest incidence, totaling more than half of the national occurrences. In an effort to reduce this crime, the national police created the Grupo Lince in 2017 to specifically respond to and prevent motorcycle-related robberies.Regarding the theft of vehicles, motorcycles constitute the most prevalent means of transportation stolen. As of September 2024, the number of thefts cases reported exceeded 3,000 occurrences. The number of motor vehicle thefts was three times less than the number of motorcycles taken in the same year.
