Why are South America and Africa so high in crime?

[kray]

I understand poverty and corruption inevitably lead to criminality, but this seems to be not the case everywhere. When looking at countries in southeast asia, poor countries (India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, etc.), we see extremely low criminality rates. Yet South America and Africa have some of the highest murder rates in the world. Why do a lot poor countries in these continents suffer such high criminality, where as poor countries in Asia seem to have extremely low criminality (lower than some countries in the west too)?

[happyhappy]

this is the difference between poverty in stage blue vs. poverty in  stage red.@kray

most south american and african states are having harsh survival conditions compared to other poor nations. drugs, cartels, gangs run most of south american poor nations. sometimes, as i heard, they even overpower the state forces. 

but in the asian form of poverty, despite the  status quo, they are mostly bound by religious , moral and nationalistic ideologies. most folks are religious or super nationalistic. 

[Matt23]

Big question...

Nice.

...

As per the "why south america and africa have higher crime yet equally lower poverty rates than south asian countries?"... the first thing I think of is potential cultural values differences.  I dunno.  

One thing sticks out to me in that, from what I understand, south america and africa are more colonized (I could be totally wrong here)... which may have something to do with it that I can't understand at the moment.  

[Preety_India]

Poverty in stage Blue = rules, rules, rules, and these rules protect each other from annihilation. Collective protection policy followed by all. Little crime, self patrolling community. 

Poverty in stage Red = zero rules, tear each other down, no ethics, kill for profit. Raw jungle survival, no shame, no dignity, no respect for each other, no value for life, extreme greed and selfishness. No code/ethics. Violence and brutality =zero humanity. High crime. Zero patrol. 

Poor countries like India, Bangladesh, Thailand = bounded by stage Blue religious ethics. 

Poor countries like Congo, Nigeria, Sudan, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico = stage Red with no ethics. Low influence of religion. Bad government. 

 

 

[Epikur]

I am shure some groups and races might feel disrespected by this observation

[PurpleTree]

i've also wondered that, been to asian countries quite often but never to subsaharan africa or latin america so i can't make a fair comparison.

seems like there are many reasons

maybe more guns and resources in those places, also in many african countries there's a battle between muslim extremists and others.

i think the phillippines are one of the asian countries with the most violence and crime, they were a colony for a long time and also are battling with muslim extremists and drug/gang issues

[kray]

3 hours ago, Epikur said:

I am shure some groups and races might feel disrespected by this observation

Not pointing out any groups. An African person was born in Norway not born in poverty will not likely be involved in any crime. I'm looking based on a national level, not an ethnic group level. 

[PurpleTree]

i know someone from honduras

he told me when he was young it was pretty safe-ish there, people used to party on the street etc.

but then corrupt politicians after corrupt politicians happened, more drugs and gangs came and human lives became less worth.

because now also the criminals were on drugs a lot and just shot people

now people who can afford it live in gated communities, most of his relatives got robbed multiple times at gun point

[Roy]

To sum it up with various points without a lot of detail;

- Asia has better agricultural practices and/or land for it, civilization has been in Asia much longer (like thousands of years) so economic systems have had longer time to develop. Food = Stability.

- South America and Africa (and NA) were exploited the worst by colonization. Slavery was pervasive, ethnic genocides happened. Asia was colonized as well but the Asian people had far higher degrees of autonomy under European rule, similar to the Middle East.

- Particularly the "Scramble for Africa" in the 1800's was incredibly destabilizing. The continent was ruthlessly carved up and the societies there were exploited for the purpose of exporting raw materials back to Europe that they didn't have or didn't want to do on their own. The post colonial time has been Africa playing catch up from having their development stunted. A lot of the nations in Africa aren't even real nations based on ethnic groupings or geographical borders, they are just arbitrary lines set up from former powers.

- There also seems to be some kind of difference in value systems between cultures of Hispanic (Spain/Portugal) vs Northern European (Britain/France/Netherlands) former colonizers (Protestant vs Catholic) and their belief systems that has had an impact on levels of corruption and economic development when you compare North America vs Central/South America. I don't know exactly what the answer is here because I'm not educated enough, but I also don't think it's a coincidence either.

- Asian cultures generally seem to be deeply collectivist too in comparison which makes a difference.

It's a really complicated topic and there are many historical factors that spill into why things are the way they are today.

The only judgement I can feel safe making is that when there is economic and political stability there is a trend of people being less likely to commit crime as there no reason to. When you don't have to worry about where your next meal is coming from, having some sort of work, or worrying about your government collapsing to corruption, you don't need to commit crime to get ahead in life.

Basic needs met = no crime.

[Buba]

I am from a poor country Azerbaijan and it is much safer than rich country United Kingdom (I have lived there). Because our people have strong family bonds, unwritten rules, classic sense of honour and etc. (For example, in Azerbaijan if you are with your girlfriend and you have an argument with a random guy, he will try not to fight you in front of your girlfriend or will ask you to take your girlfriend home and come back for a fight. Because beating someone in front of his girlfriend is not cool.) But still when it comes to non-violent crimes like corruption, bribe and etc, British people are much better than us.

However my country is becoming more violent over time, because the values disappear and the poverty becomes more severe.

[PurpleTree]

20 minutes ago, Buba said:

However my country is becoming more violent over time, because the values disappear and the poverty becomes more severe.

i thought it's becoming more "rich" because of oil and gas?

[DieFree]

Excuse me. There are many parts of Africa that are incredibly safe. Somaliland is one example. Ethiopia, until its recent civil war, was very safe and still is very safe in big cities like Addis Ababa. Nairobi, except for pickpockets, is safe. Lumping a massive continent many times the size of Europe together smearing and stereotyping the entire place as "unsafe" is the type of lazy thinking that has caused A LOT of problem and which we should not repeat here. 

[PurpleTree]

23 minutes ago, DieFree said:

Excuse me. There are many parts of Africa that are incredibly safe. Somaliland is one example. Ethiopia, until its recent civil war, was very safe and still is very safe in big cities like Addis Ababa. Nairobi, except for pickpockets, is safe. Lumping a massive continent many times the size of Europe together smearing and stereotyping the entire place as "unsafe" is the type of lazy thinking that has caused A LOT of problem and which we should not repeat here. 

yea personally i was mostly thinking about the difference in crime/murder between east asian countries and latin america, because i want to travel there soon

[Buba]

20 hours ago, PurpleTree said:

i thought it's becoming more "rich" because of oil and gas?

The dictator is becoming richer and more powerful. He bribes politicians even from respected Western countries. After tensions with Russia Western support to our dictator will only increase. Actually I think it is the United Kingdom that put his father on our head to suck our oil and gas.