Analysis of crime data tells all kinds of stories!

On Wednesday night, we told you about the Belize Crime Observatory’s analysis of the crime data for 2020. According to the most recent figures, Belize is also on track to record its lowest murder rate since 2013. But the data, once gathered and analyzed, tell different stories. And on Wednesday, Technical Coordinator Adele Ramos of the B.C.O. shared an interesting bit of information on the autopsies conducted between 2019 and 2020:

Adele Ramos, Technical Coordinator, Belize Crime Observatory

“When we look at the autopsies of all homicides, these include the murders, we see where in terms of the percentage of the of autopsies done for homicides in November 2019 there were sixteen percent and for this same period in 2020, thirty-four percent of those autopsies that were conducted by the national forensic science service were on homicide victims and that is substantial because we saw a period where the murders declined substantially and then there was an uptick. So, again, we have to watch these dynamics because it points to the question whether the actions we are taking are really making that kind of impact or are they measures that will have a sustained impact over time. And that is why it is so critical for us to have these kinds of analytics that will sure decision makers that you did this and yes it had that impact, was the impact sustained and where we will need to look at other measures to complement those very effective measures so that the impact can be sustained.”