SDG 16 highlights the importance of peace, security, access to justice and strong institutions as key elements for countries to grow, develop and succeed in achieving sustainable development. Even though the world has steadily — but slowly — reduced its homicide rate in the past decade, there are still major challenges to be solved.
Globally, there are almost one billion people living in fragile or conflict-affected countries. Only in 2022, the world experienced more than 116,000 violent events, with nearly a third of them taking place in Ukraine — a conflict that in its first year has accounted for over 32,000 casualties and has forced 8 million people to seek refuge outside its borders.
At the same time, efforts towards reducing violence and homicide — and building effective, accountable institutions to prosecute them — are essential everywhere, for example, in places such Latin America & the Caribbean, the region with the highest number of homicides per 100,000 people, as shown in the 2023 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals.
Some of the main drivers behind these numbers in Latin America & the Caribbean are the gang-related violence and organized crime. This phenomenon showcases a much deeper problem when analyzed from a gender perspective: according to the statistics, most of the victims and perpetrators are young men from disadvantaged backgrounds.
But this challenge is not only specific to Latin America & the Caribbean — it is also happening globally: among 107 countries where gender disaggregated data is available, 97 countries have a higher male homicide rate.
When compared with females, the global male homicide rate is more than four times the rate for women (9 victims per 100,000 vs. 2 per 100,000). Data can also be disaggregated by region and country, as the graph below shows:
Read the data stories and its different visualizations as you scroll through the sixteenth chapter of the 2023 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals.
Join the Conversation