Crime is among the most urgent concerns facing Mexico, as Mexican drug trafficking rings play a major role in the flow of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana transiting between Latin America and the United States. Drug trafficking has led to corruption, which has had a deleterious effect on Mexico’s Federal Representative Republic. Drug trafficking and organized crime have also been a major source of violent crime in Mexico.

Mexico has experienced increasingly high crime rates, especially in major urban centers. The country’s great economic polarization has stimulated criminal activity in the lower socioeconomic strata, which include the majority of the country’s population.

Crime continues at high levels, and is repeatedly marked by violence, especially in the cities of Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez, and the states of Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Michoacán. Other metropolitan areas have lower, yet still serious, levels of crime. Low apprehension and conviction rates contribute to the high crime rate.

High levels of corruption in the police, judiciary, and government in general have contributed greatly to the crime problem. Corruption is a significant obstacle to Mexico’s achieving a stable democracy. Mexico is ranked the 86th least corrupt country in the world which makes them less corrupt than Argentina and more corrupt than China. This is according to the Corruption Perceptions Index, which is based on 13 different surveys and includes police, business, and political corruption.

According to the CNDH, only one out of every ten crimes is reported in Mexico; this is due to lack of trust from citizens to the authorities. Furthermore, only one out of 100 reported crimes actually goes to sentencing. This means that one out of every 1000 crimes is punished.

Human Rights in Mexico have been an issue for years. The problems include torture, police repression, sexual murder, and more recently — news reporter assassinations.

Since 1992, hundreds of women of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, have been sexually murdered. The death toll of serially related murders in Juárez is climbing past 400, and many women are simply missing according to local news articles. The city of Juárez homicide-disappearance rate for women is 38 times higher than all of the homicides in common North American statistics.

Women and young girls from every occupation and age, especially girls on their way to school waiting for their bus in the morning and women working the second shift walking home before dawn from their factories’ bus stops are quite vulnerable The most seriously threatened group is primarily 12 to 21 years of age due to a breakdown of the family according to Chihuahua Institute of the Woman.