Crime in Mexico

Crime is among the most urgent concerns facing Mexico, as Mexican drug trafficking rings play a major role in the flow of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transiting between Latin America and the United States. Drug trafficking has led to corruption, which has had a deleterious effect on Mexico's Federal Representative Republic. Drug trafficking and organized crime have also been a major source of violent crime in Mexico.

Mexico has experienced increasingly high crime rates, especially in major urban centers. The country's great economic polarization has stimulated criminal activity mainly in the lower socioeconomic strata, which include the majority of the country's population. Crime continues at high levels, and is repeatedly marked by violence, especially in the cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, and the states of Baja California, Durango, Sinaloa, Guerrero, Chihuahua, Michoacán, Tamaulipas, and Nuevo León. Other metropolitan areas have lower, yet still serious, levels of crime. Low apprehension and conviction rates contribute to the high crime rate. Since many crimes go unreported, the rates may be much higher than reported by the government. The murder rate in 2015 was 14 per 100,000. Most of the crime is committed by a small proportion of the population involved in the drug trade with about half of murders drug related.

Assault and theft make up the vast majority of crimes. While urban areas tend to have higher crime rates, as is typical in most countries, the United States–Mexico border has also been a problematic area. In 2015 Hispanic Americans committed homicides at a rate similar to the US average of 4.9 per 100,000.

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