| Code | VC.IHR.PSRC.P5 |
| Indicator Name | Intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) |
| Long definition | An intentional homicide is defined as an unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury. |
| Source | UNODC Research - Data Portal – Intentional Homicide, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) |
| Topic | Public Sector: Conflict & fragility |
| Dataset | WB_WDI |
| Unit of measure | Rate per 100,000 population |
| Periodicity | Annual |
| Reference period | 1990-2023 |
| Aggregation method | Aggregate values are computed by UNODC. For additional information, please see the UNODC website: https://dataunodc.un.org/sites/dataunodc.un.org/files/metadata_intentional_homicide.pdf |
| Statistical concept and methodology | Methodology: The data are sourced by UNODC from either criminal justice or public health systems. In the former, data are generated by law enforcement or criminal justice authorities in the process of recording and investigating a crime event, whereas in the latter, data are produced by health authorities certifying the cause of death of an individual.
These data are collected from national authorities with the annual United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (UN-CTS). National focal points working in national agencies responsible for statistics on crime and the criminal justice system and nominated by the Permanent Mission to UNODC are responsible for compiling the data from the other relevant agencies before transmitting the UN-CTS to UNODC. Following the submission, UNODC checks for consistency and coherence with other data sources. Member States which are also part of the European Union or the European Free Trade Association, or candidate or potential candidate to the European Union are sending their response to the UN-CTS to Eurostat for validation.
Data submitted by Member States through other means or taken from other sources are added to the dataset after review by Member States.
The population data is sourced from the World Population Prospect, Population Division, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Statistical concept(s): The International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) is the source of the definition of intentional homicide. The definitions of the disaggregation of victims of intentional homicide included in these tables (by situational context, by relationship to perpetrator and by mechanisms) are also from the ICCS.
The ICCS includes more information on what is included and excluded in these offences. Intentional homicide (ICCS 0101): Unlawful death inflicted upon a person with the intent to cause death or serious injury.
The statistical definition contains three elements that characterize the killing of a person as “intentional homicide”:
1. The killing of a person by another person (objective element)
2. The intent of the perpetrator to kill or seriously injure the victim (subjective element)
3. The unlawfulness of the killing (legal element)
For recording purposes, all killings that meet the criteria listed above are to be considered intentional homicides, irrespective of definitions provided by national legislations or practices. Killings as a result of terrorist activities are also to be classified as a form of intentional homicide. |
| Development relevance | In some regions, organized crime, drug trafficking and the violent cultures of youth gangs are predominantly responsible for the high levels of homicide. There has been a sharp increase in homicides in some countries, particularly in Central America, are making the activities of organized crime and drug trafficking more visible. Greater use of firearms is often associated with the illicit activities of organized criminal groups, which are often linked to drug trafficking.
Knowledge of the patterns and causes of violent crime are crucial to forming preventive strategies. Young males are the group most affected by violent crime in all regions, particularly in the Americas. Yet women of all ages are the victims of intimate partner and family-related violence in all regions and countries. Indeed, in many of them, it is within the home where a woman is most likely to be killed.
Data on intentional homicides are from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which uses a variety of national and international sources on homicides - primarily criminal justice sources as well as public health data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health Organization - and the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems to present accurate and comparable statistics. The UNODC defines homicide as "unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person." This definition excludes deaths arising from armed conflict. |
| Limitations and exceptions | Statistics reported to the United Nations in the context of its various surveys on crime levels and criminal justice trends are incidents of victimization that have been reported to the authorities in any given country. That means that this data is subject to the problems of accuracy of all official crime data. The survey results provide an overview of trends and interrelationships between various parts of the criminal justice system to promote informed decision-making in administration, nationally and internationally.
The degree to which different societies apportion the level of culpability to acts resulting in death is also subject to variation. Consequently, the comparison between countries and regions of "intentional homicide", or unlawful death purposefully inflicted on a person by another person, is also a comparison of the extent to which different countries deem that a killing be classified as such, as well as the capacity of their legal systems to record it. Caution should therefore be applied when evaluating and comparing homicide data. |
| License URL | https://datacatalog.worldbank.org/public-licenses#cc-by |
| License Type | CC BY-4.0 |
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