Homicides in 2021 reached 1,349 people according to ONE

Of the 4,391 accidental and violent deaths registered last year, 1,349 were homicides, according to data from the National Statistics Office (ONE), representing an increase of 8.6% with respect to 2020, which reached 1,136.

The homicide rate is one of the indicators that generally indicate the level of violence in a country.

“It is good to note that 2020 was a year of COVI-19 pandemic and could be influenced by the sanitary restrictions implemented by the State,” explains the ONE.

In the year 2021, homicides of men amounted to 89.3%, and those of women, 10.7% of this total 62.8% were by firearms, the means or method most used to commit the crime of homicide.

Likewise, homicides by bladed weapons or sharp objects represented 25.6%; blunt objects were used with 6.7%.

The ONE explains that at a territorial level, the Metropolitan region was the most affected with homicides, 36.8% occurred in that demarcation, followed by the Cibao Norte and Valdesia regions with 16.1% and 10.1%; these three regions account for 63% of all homicide deaths, the remaining 37% is distributed among the remaining seven regions.

The provinces with the highest rates per hundred thousand inhabitants are Hato Mayor, Elías Piña, and Duarte, with 32.7, 20.5, and 19.7, respectively. The provinces with the lowest gross homicide rates are Hermanas Mirabal, Independencia, and Sanchez Ramirez, 4.4, 6.8, and 7.2, respectively.

Men 25-29, 20-24 and 30-34, reach higher percentages with 17.3%, 14.2% and 12.5% respectively.

“For the same age groups, women present a relevant difference with respect to men, with 1.7%, 1.8% and 1.1% of homicides in women,” they explain.

When disaggregating the homicide deaths that occurred in 2021 according to the victim’s nationality, 85.8% of were Dominicans, while 13.5% corresponded to Haitian nationals, and 0.7% were nationals from Venezuela, the United States, Switzerland, Spain, Puerto Rico, Holland, and Italy.

“In a general sense, a reduction of intentional homicide per one hundred thousand inhabitants is observed in the reference period, going from 21.1% in 2009 to 12.8% in 2021, which represents a reduction of 47.4%. The reduction in the intentional homicide rate was the one that contributed the most for the overall homicide rate to be reduced to the current levels,” says the ONE.