We often hear about homicide rates in Mexico and how they are among the highest in the world. While that is true for some parts
of Mexico, much of Mexico — where nearly 80 percent of the population
lives — has much lower rates than what are often quoted in the media.
Most
of the high-homicide areas in Mexico are found along the US border, and
to a certain extent reflect the work of drug cartels working to keep
drug trafficking channels open to the US.
And
yet, right across the border in the US, homicide rates are remarkable
low. In fact, homicide rates along the US side of the border are
significantly below the US average.
Why is this?
Homicide Rates in Mexico, By State
First, to get a better understanding of these phenomena, let's look at homicide rates in Mexico by state.
While
not as decentralized as the US, Mexico has a weak federal system like
the United States with 31 states and one federal district (somewhat like
the District of Columbia) that is Mexico City.
Using OECD data (for 2013), I mapped the Mexican states by homicide rate:
Source: OECD, map by Ryan McMaken
Clearly,
homicides are not evenly distributed across Mexico, and some areas are
lopsidedly affected. Those familiar with the Mexican Drug War will note
that this pattern does indeed appear to reflect trends in cartel activity and the Drug War. Here is map to help you identify each state:
Source: Mexconnect
Most
Mexicans live in states with homicide rates well below those found
among the ten states with the worst rates. Indeed, the total population
living outside these areas constitutes nearly 80 percent of
Mexico's 117 million people (as of the 2010 census). Population is
concentrated around Mexico State, Pueblo State, and other states in the
southern and eastern parts of the country. However, even in these parts
of the country, homicide rates remains well above the US average.
Also of note is the fact that the states with the lowest percentages of indigenous Mexican populations also
tend to have the highest homicide rates. Note, for example, that among
heavily indigenous states in the far south and in the Yucatan, homicide
rates are quie low by national standards. Chihuahua, by contrast, which
historically has tended to have the largest population of non indigenous
(i.e., "white") Mexicans (proportionally speaking) has the highest
homicide rate.
And finally, we note that northern Mexico, including the high-homicide states discussed here, tend to have higher per capital income levels than the rest of the country.
The old assumptions about how the poor and non-whites cause higher homicide rates require a closer look in the case of Mexico.
Big Differences on Different Sides of the Border
Let's now turn our attention to the problematic north.
It's
not an accident that some of the highest homicide rates are found along
the border. Mexican drug cartels have an incentive to ensure they
maintain control of drug supplies moving norther to where the demand is
(in the United States.)
However,
those drugs still need to be moved on the northern side of the border.
So, do homicide rates continue onto the northern side? It turns out they
don't. Using the same color coding (and the same data source) as the
homicide map above, the border states (two states deep) on both sides
look like this:
Source: OECD. Map by Ryan McMaken
On
the other hand, Chihuahua and Texas are very big places. Perhaps if we
take a more detailed look at the counties right on the border, we'll get
a better feel for how things look at the border.
Thanks to Omar Garcia Ponce and Hannah Postel at
the Center for Global Development, the work's already been done for me.
Here is a map of the border at the county/municipality level:
Source: Center for Global Development
The
general scenario remains the same. In fact, the borderland on the US
side of the border have fewer homicides than the US overall. The
authors note:
The map [above] illustrates the striking disparity between homicide rates on each side of the border. In 2012 (the most recent year available for all locations), Mexican border municipalities experienced 34.5 murders for every 100,000 people. By contrast, the homicide rate in US border counties was only 1.4, far below the US national average (4.7), and a tiny fraction of that experienced by their Southern neighbors.
While almost half of the Mexican municipalities along the border experienced more than 40 murders per 100,000 people in 2012 (176 in Tamaulipas’ Ciudad Mier), the highest homicide rate in the US border counties was 12.9 (Yuma, AZ). The next most violent county experienced only 5.4 murders per 100,000 people. Notably, some of the safest locations in the United States are contiguous to many of the most dangerous places in Mexico. Most striking is the contrast between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, two large cities that constitute a binational metropolitan area. Once called “the murder capital of the world,” Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez is only 300 feet from El Paso, “America’s safest city.” In 2012, Ciudad Juárez had 58 homicides per 100,000 people, while El Paso experienced fewer than one (0.6).
So why is there such an immense difference here?
Restrictive Gun Laws in Mexico
The
pre-packaged retort to this phenomena often repeated in the media is
that the US causes the high homicide rates in Mexico by exporting guns
to Mexico. We're told that criminals go into the US, buy guns legally in
Texas (for example) and then sell the guns illegally to cartels in
Mexico.
Dave Kopel has shown that this claim isn't true. But, even if it were true, it wouldn't explain
much by itself since we're left asking ourselves why criminals don'
just do the same thing to the same homicidal effect in the United
States. If it's so fruitful for violent criminals to buy guns in the US
and sell them to organized crime rings, why aren't those criminals doing
the same thing in the US?
Well, the answer is the criminals probably are are well armed in the US, and have a lot of guns just like criminals in Mexico do. The difference in actual crimes carried out, however, likely lies in the fact that law abiding Mexicans have been disarmed, while law abiding Americans have not.
Gun laws are very restrictive in Mexico, as The Atlantic notes:
Mexico can hardly be described as a heavily armed society. With around 2.5 million registered gun owners and at least 13 million more illegal arms in circulation, the country has a ratio of just 15 guns for every 100 people, well below the global average. Unlike in the U.S., civilian possession in Mexico is considered a privilege, not a right and is tightly regulated under federal law since the 1970s. Extensive background checks are required of all purchasers, and there are heavy penalties and even imprisonment for non-compliance. Astonishingly, there is just one legal gun shop in the country, compared to more than 54,000 federally licensed firearm dealers and thousands of pawnshops and gun shows scattered across the U.S.
In
other words, in Mexico, there is an immense asymmetry in gun ownership
between violent criminals and law-abiding citizens. Criminals have
abundant access to the means of violent coercion, and the will to use
it. Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, have, practically speaking, no
access. Meanwhile, local officials can be bought by the criminals,
which means that private citizens will then find themselves facing two heavily armed groups who are free to behave maliciously toward the general population with little fear of reprisals.
The Atlantic author notes that in Mexico, there are about 15 guns per 100 persons, which is likely referencing the data released by the Small Arms Survey.
The same survey estimates that, by contrast, there are from 88 to 100
guns per 100 persons in the United States. The US far outpaces even
gun-friendly Switzerland which has about 45 guns per 100 persons.
In response to this lopsided situation that favors the cartels, some Mexicans have formed their own militia groups, but these are considered only quasi-legal, and they are certainly rare compared to the number of armed cartel members.
In
the US, by contrast, violent criminals can guess that a
not-insignificant percentage of Americans are armed on the street, and
far more are armed in the home.
Possible Other Factors
Now,
I'm not going to claim that gun control is the only factor at play
here. There are so many cultural factors at work, it's impossible to
single out this one issue as the only important one. Gun control
advocates will credit gun control for low homicides, and blame
everything else for high homicides. The truth is far more complex.
Deeply
ingrained issues related to government corruption, and the chaotic
effect of the Drug War are clearly important factors. However, the
differences between Northern Mexico and Southern Texas or Southern
Arizona are not as immense as some might think. For example, in
Chihuahua, across the river from El Paso, the people share a nearly
identical geography, and a very similar ethnic makeup. Even
economically, northern Mexico is closer to the US than is southern
Mexico, while a majority of Chihuahuans are of European descent. And, of
course, it would be risible to suggest that the US is free of political
corruption. However, all of these issues are exacerbated by
the fact that the Mexican's state's stringent gun controls greatly
enhance the coercive power of cartels and government agents at the
expense of ordinary citizens.
And
there is no denying that when one crosses the border from Chihuahua to
Texas, some of the biggest differences one encounters are legal and
political in nature.
Among
these differences is the fact that south of the border only government
agents and criminals are allowed meaningful access to firearms, while
norther of the border, criminals and ordinary citizens share similar levels of access.
What
we are witnessing in northern Mexico then, is a tragic mixture of
failed Drug War policies mixed with a government refusal to allow
Mexicans to arm themselves. Yes, there are many factors at work. Take
out some of them — whether drug war, ethnic conflict, or poverty — and
the situation would likely be improved.
But,
when we add gun control into the mix, things are far worse than these
ever need have been. Moreover, if one's position is that the fault lies
with poverty and corruption, then the pro-gun-control position is
nothing more than the position that the same regime responsible for this
corruption and poverty should be granted even more absolute power over
the population it abuses.
It
is instructive that, on the northern side of the border, meanwhile,
there is still a drug war, there is a lot of ethnic diversity, and the
US border areas have some of the highest poverty rates in the United States.
And yet, homicide rates are far, far below what they are on the
southern side. Indeed, right along the border, they're among the lowest
rates we see anywhere in the world.
What About the Canada-US Border?
Do we see similar issues along the Canadian-US border?
As I noted in this article,
American states near the northern US border tend to have low homicide
rates with states like Idaho, Oregon, New Hampshire, and Maine reporting
remarkably low homicide rates that are similar too or even lower than
Canadian homicide rates.
Using
the same color coding as the previous maps (and the same data source),
we see that, with the exception of Michigan (i.e., Detroit) the
US-Canada border is marked by homicide rates all below 5 per 100,000:
Source: OECD. Map by Ryan McMaken
Of
course, the situation in the Canadian border is immensely different
from the situation on the Mexican border in terms of ethnicity, income
levels, and climate. Crossing the northern border, however, brings
nowhere near the sorts of changes in crime that are encountered on the
southern side.
Nevertheless,
part of this might be attributed to the fact that Canada is far more
gun-friendly than Mexico. There is certainly more than one gun store in
Canada (to say the least), and it is estimated by the Small Arms Survey
that Canada has twice as many guns per capita as Mexico, with 30 per 100
persons.
Mexican Politicians (and American Politicians) Blame Everyone Else
While
it refuses to admit the abject failure of its gun control program, the
Mexican state instead attempts to shift the blame to Americans and has
attempted to impose international gun control measures on the US.
For
Mexican politicians, it's easier to shift the blame than to recognize
the fact that neighboring Americans right across the border enjoy far
lower homicide rates along side relatively easy access to firearms.
(Even California looks like a gun-owner's paradise compared to Mexico.)
The
Mexican state (and many Mexicans) are unfortunately impervious to these
facts, and, many Mexicans still believe that Mexicans will be safer if
the Mexican regime tightens its grip even more on firearms, in spite of
the spectacular failure of gun control in that country.
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