Crime Update - 2024

Navigating Chile
1

Decided to look into whether crime is increasing or decreasing.

Homicides
2022 (1322 homicides) was a big increase and a peak, and 2023 (1249) and 2024 (1207) had small decreases. Therefore 2024 is still higher than 2018, 2019, 2020 or 2021 as each of these years was between 845 and 1115.

https://prevenciondehomicidios.cl/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Informe_de_victimas_de_homicidio_2024.pdf shows the stats on page 11 in a graph which shows what I mean more clearly.

All crimes reported to police
The total number of crimes reported to police is shown in articles on www.carabineros.cl and https://www.ine.gob.cl. I can post links for each year if anyone requests it. But it looks like 1.3 - 1.6 million crimes reported each year from 2020 to 2024 so staying reasonably constant.

Again looks like 2022 was a bit higher than 2023 or 2024. I think my article “Crime increase hopefully over” on this forum in January 2023 was proved correct.

Not all crimes are reported
I know many crimes are not reported, but as long as the % of reported crimes stays reasonably constant, then reported crimes would give us a clue as to whether total crimes is increasing or decreasing.

Also, most homicides should be reported.

Crimes I’ve seen in person
On a personal note, I did say a few years back that I have cycled, walk and driven over Santiago for years and years and never had anything happen to me, or even seen any crime occurring. However in the last year or so I have had one crime happen to me, and seen two. The glass was taken out of my wing mirrors while parked on Calle Lautaro to go to a restaurant in Plaza Italia. I came back to my car at 1am. It was free parking on a residential street, no attendant. The mirrors did not have the number plate engraved on them at the time (they do now).

The other two crimes I observed one about a year ago I saw a man holding down another man and beating him on the pavement. It was in Recoleta on a weekday evening. I also saw a man running down the street with a stolen bottle of gas (one of those 11 or 15L ones) because the restaurant had left it on the street and then I saw a worker in the restaurant trying to chase after him and they went out of view. That was in Santiago in an evening maybe around the end of 2024. I am not sure why I happen to have observed crime more recently, but I think it was probably because I went to Santiago more often in the evening in the last 12 months (all the crimes were after dark), or just coincidence.

Speaking to Others
I have had a lot of conversations with people complaining about crime in RM in recent years, and I invariably ask them what crimes they have had happen to them, or what they know has happened to friends or family, and they nearly always have no such reports. Their complaints are probably based on TV and social media reports.

2025
These are annual stats, so don’t cover what has happened this year. If anyone wants I can check for how this year is looking so far, or update this article when the annual stats are out.

Chile vs other countries
I will compare Chile to other countries separately in a comment so this isn’t too long.

2

So I am also curious as to how crime compared to other countries. Unfortunately it’s very hard to compare as it depends on how a crime is defined in each country and how much of it is reported, both of which are likely to be very different in each country. For example, in the case of rape, I read about a country, I think it was in Sweden or somewhere else in Scandinavia where if a woman goes to the police and says my husband has been raping me almost every day for 20 years they will count that as 7,000 separate crimes, whereas some other countries would just register that as 1 (alleged) offense and other countries (maybe in the Middle East perhaps) might say that a husband has marital rights and that this cannot be rape and would refuse to record it if the woman even tried to report it (which she would perhaps be less likely to).

However, I think homicide rates are likely to have similar definitions (is someone dead or not would seem to be key here) and also are likely to see high levels of reporting in a lot of countries, making comparisons broadly valid.

There is an interesting chart here Homicide rate - Our World in Data that shows annual deaths from homicide per 100,000 people

Chile seems to be about the same as the world average, has a high homicide rate compared to UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, India and China, similar to US, and low compared to Mexico and other South America.

Here are some numbers:(not all from the same year most are 2023 and 2024, some are 2020 or 2021, you can check at the link above),

Whole world 5.2 homicides per year per 100,000 people
Chile 6.3
Argentina 4.5
Brazil 20.6
Mexico 24.9
USA 5.8
Canada 2.3

UK 1.1
France 1.3
Spain 0.7
Germany 0.9
Italy 0.6

South Africa 43.7

Australia 0.9
New Zealand 1.5

India 2.8
China 0.5
Russia 7.8

So just to put things into context, if these statistics are to be believed, even if Chile has a massive increase in its murder rate it will still be far less than Mexico, South Africa or Brazil. And even if it massively decreases it will still be much higher than Europe or China.

1 Like
3

While homicide is indeed an indicator, it hardly begins to characterize the broader spectrum of delinquency in this country, where theft in all its many manifestations is the principal pillar of the culture.

Historically, Chile has shown among the highest rates for robbery, particularly robbery with violence

image
image779Ă—448 20 KB

For 2024, a third of the country’s households reported a robbery or robbery attempt (Paz Ciudadana reporting)

image
image848Ă—185 12.3 KB

This is reported to be a slight reduction over previous year averages, which were very high (Paz Ciudadana, robbery or attempted robbery of household during 6 month period)

image
image560Ă—279 13.2 KB

Rates for 6 month period, for a member of a household subject to robbery or robbery attempt

image
image681Ă—280 12.6 KB

3 out of 10 reported robberies included violence

image
image856Ă—235 14.5 KB

Referring to an earlier observation: only about half of the robberies or robbery attempts are reported

image
image835Ă—216 14 KB

1 Like
4

thank you for that contribution, numbers higher than I would have guessed.

Certainly true that focusing on homicides only is very limiting. But I think the robberies are going to be hard to compare across country because hard to say if definitions and reporting rates are the same.

1 Like
5

South Africa 43.7

As we say in the mother country, South Africa is not for sissies…

So just to put things into context, if these statistics are to be believed, even if Chile has a massive increase in its murder rate it will still be far less than Mexico, South Africa or Brazil. And even if it massively decreases it will still be much higher than Europe or China.

Indeed, as a Saffer, I find the Chilean homicide rate quite amenable.

1 Like
6

South Africa makes Somalia seem enticing.

7

I checked the homicides for the first half of 2025 and it was at 511, down from 585 in the first half of 2024. Source: https://prevenciondehomicidios.cl/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Informe_primer_semestre_2025.pdf (page 8)

If we extrapolate that to 1022 annual rate, that is similar to 2019-2021 levels (slightly above 2019 and 2021 and slightly below 2021).

This, amongst other things previously mentioned, arguably enables us to give the following tentative judgement on the current government: crime levels at the end of the Boric Presidency will be broadly similar to the start (if you believe these statistics). That assumes you take 2021 as the baseline to judge them from (although he took office in March 2022).

8

Carabineros like to report using their “socially significant crimes” category

image

That includes these crimes - and here the number of 2024 events

image

For 2024, RM and other region s for “DMCS” crimes

image
image277Ă—313 11 KB

Numbers of the individual major crime classes and the pitifully small number of perps apprehended

image
image535Ă—562 31 KB

For major crimes with apprehensions, a significant number evidently the work of non-Chileans. Note the ages of the perps

image
image624Ă—225 17.4 KB

Note the numbers on repeat offenders apprehended – green for 5 or more priors

image
image1040Ă—425 41.3 KB

1 Like
9

I tend to be skeptical about crime statistics. Given the ineffectiveness of law enforcement, many crimes go unreported. The following, from today’s EMOL highlights specific problems in the retail area, but the sentiments expressed by victims apply to all types of criminal activity.

A victimization survey of businesses, conducted by the National Chamber of Commerce (CNC), revealed that during the first half of 2025, 60.4% of the businesses surveyed were victims of crime, meaning 6 out of every 10 businesses.

Of those who were victims of crime, 58.2% did not report any incident, a slight increase from the previous survey. Department stores, supermarkets, and pharmacies were the venues where this non-reporting was most common (71.1%), and, in terms of cities, Temuco and Santiago stood out as locations with the highest rates of unreported crimes.

Of those who did report at least one incident, when asked whether they obtained the results they expected, 78.4% said no, while only 6.2% answered affirmatively.

The main reasons cited for not reporting crimes were a lack of confidence in the effectiveness of the reporting process (66.8%), the fact that it is a cumbersome procedure (45.9%), and the low value of the stolen property (45%). Other reasons included lack of time (35.1%) and lack of evidence (20.3%). It is noteworthy that the percentage of those who did not report crimes because they feared retaliation also increased, reaching 6.6%.

And of course, inter-gang violence goes completely unreported, even when innocent bystanders become victims.

10

During the night, so early this morning today, thieves entered the house of the woman I am currently dating, a few hours after I dropped her off outside at about 11pm. She and her parents have a nice looking house with a foreign design in an average neighborhood. They are in the east of Rancagua, towards Machali.

Her father and at least one of the thieves had a physical fight with punches and minor injuries, and some things were stolen.

11

That guy was lucky. These f´s are too ready to use guns or knives when they meet opposition.
I guess the sense of victimhood and the knowledge that justice will probably not be done is even worse than the loss of possessions.

I see incidents like this in the news on a daily basis, which only confirm my disgust with a governing elite, (and not just the current lot) more concerned with internal power struggles than with safeguarding the people who elected them.

12

I don’t have time to look for stats right now, but I am curious to see the numbers for kidnapping/extortion.

13

Since you asked, kidnappings (secuestros) have been exploding in recent years.

Between 2022 and 2024, Chile showed more than 800 kidnappings per year. 2024 had the highest with 868, an increase of 2.1% over 2023. Mostly seen in large urban centers. The highest percentage growth is in the Atacama region: 162% increase in just one year.

In 2024, almost 4 out of 10 kidnappings (39%) are linked to organized crime. ,

Kidnappings tend to be for extortion, settling of scores, revenge, or debt collection, although about a quarter of known kidnappings appear to have no evident purpose or at least none that law enforcement has revealed. Kidnapping is found throughout the country but has shown a prominent presence in the regions of Los Lagos, O’Higgins, Atacama, Biobío and Ñuble. More than half of the cases reported in 2024 there are linked to criminal organizations.

In the Metropolitan Region, kidnappings are especially concentrated in central Santiago (14%), as well as in sectors including Ruta 5 Sur to EstaciĂłn Central, Avenida Vivaceta in Independencia, and southern areas of San Bernardo and La Pintana.

Stats:

About 25% of kidnappings in Chile in 2024 involved at least one foreigner, primarily (no surprise here) Venezuelans, followed by Colombians. Big statistical jump in that area in just one year. Two out of three of those involved in conduct of kidnapping have prior arrests, primarily for menacing, drug trafficking, and battery/injuries inflicted, and robbery.

1 Like
14

No one knows how one will really react even if role played beforehand in a a kidnapping attempt situation. Given the use of guns in even simple robberies these days, it is a coin flip to resist or not. I lean to resist and run like hell if possible as once you are in their full control, the odds suddenly turn against your survival in one piece or at all not to mention the lifetime trauma if you do survive.

15

From last night. Like I said, it happens every day.

16

She said that they have 6 robberies inside their house in total. I must say when I saw the house it does stick out as being a bit of a fancy ish house with a unique international design in an average neighbourhood.

She said she called 133 and the police actually arrived to the house in about 6-10 minutes which is way better than I would have predicted, of course that is not quite fast enough of course, but the response time that would be really useful is unrealistic.

17

Another one, from early this morning. Need I continue?

One statistic I don’t think is easily available is the number of intentional attempts to run over Carabineros with vehicles during police operations.

This was absolutely unheard of until a few years ago; now it seems to be a common way of trying to escape the law, sometimes for quite trivial matters.

This one was just reported today: