In the decade to 2010 more than 1m Latin Americans died as a result of criminal violence, according to the UNDP. Around four-fifths of murders are committed with firearms, which are readily available. Robberies have tripled in the past 25 years, six out of ten of them involving violence.

The vast majority of crimes are not reported to the police, in whom citizens have little confidence. Murder rates vary widely between and within countries, and in some cases have fallen (eg, in Colombia and more recently in Guatemala and El Salvador). Nevertheless, a poll commissioned for the report suggests that nearly two-thirds of Latin Americans avoid going out at night for fear of crime, and one in eight (about 75m people) has moved house in order to feel safer.

Some of the factors behind this tidal wave of crime, such as drug-trafficking, are well known. Others, such as low wages, lack of schooling and family breakdown (often associated with domestic violence) are less remarked. The UNDP surveyed prison inmates in six countries and found that although most were in work when arrested, half had dropped out of school and started work aged 15 or younger. Between 10% and 30% never knew at least one of their parents.

Many Latin Americans have demanded that their governments adopt mano dura (“iron fist”) policies to tackle crime. But flaws in the police, courts and prisons mean that this often backfires. The UNDP points to the success of strategies that have focused on crime-detection and prevention. By mapping violence in Belo Horizonte, in Brazil, researchers found that six of the city’s 81 favelas accounted for most of it. Colombia’s Plan Cuadrante, a national neighbourhood-watch scheme, and a similar effort in the Dominican Republic (“Barrio Seguro”) have helped police to home in on hotspots.

This approach depends on co-ordinating the work of police and other government agencies, both local and national. Crime can be cut by such diverse measures as lighting streets, training young people and closing bars early. For such approaches to work, though, “people have to have trust in the police”, says Rafael Fernández de Castro, a Mexican academic who is the report’s author. So police reform is often the essential first step. The UNDP concludes that countries should set upnational agreements for citizen security”, involving government, political parties and social groups. Crime is too important to be left to the police or the government alone.