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Background: In 2012, international statistics showed El Salvador's suicide rate as 40th in the world and the highest in Latin America. Over the last 15 years, national statistics show the suicide death rate declining as opposed to an increasing rate of homicide. Though completed suicide is an important social and health issue, little is known about its prevalence, incidence, etiology and spatio-temporal behavior. The primary objective of this study was to examine completed suicide and homicide using the stream analogy to lethal violence within a spatio-temporal framework.Methods: A Bayesian model was applied to examine the spatio-temporal evolution of the tendency of completed suicide over homicide in El Salvador. Data on numbers of suicides and homicides at the municipal level were obtained from the Instituto de Medicina Legal (IML) and population counts, from the Dirección General de Estadística y Censos (DIGESTYC), for the period of 2002 to 2012. Data on migration were derived from the 2007 Population Census, and inequality data were obtained from a study by Damianović, Valenzuela and Vera.Results: The data reveal a stable standardized rate of total lethal violence (completed suicide plus homicide) across municipalities over time; a decline in suicide; and a standardized suicide rate decreasing with income inequality but increasing with social isolation. Municipalities clustered in terms of both total lethal violence and suicide standardized rates.Conclusions: Spatial effects for suicide were stronger among municipalities located in the north-east and center-south sides of the country. New clusters of municipalities with large suicide standardized rates were detected in the north-west, south-west and center-south regions, all of which are part of time-stable clusters of homicide. Prevention efforts to reduce income inequality and mitigate the negative effects of weak relational systems should focus upon municipalities forming time-persistent clusters with a large rate of death by suicide. In municipalities that are part of newly-formed suicide clusters and also are located in areas with a large rate of homicide, interrupting the expansion of spatial concentrations of suicide over time may require the implementation of both public health and public safety interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 2012-2013, the homicide rate in El Salvador came down from 69.9 to 42.2 per 100,000 population following a government brokered truce between the leaders of the two major gangs, Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. But despite the apparent successes of the truce, it was speculated that the drop in murders could have been due to the killers simply hid the bodies of their victims. This paper aims at determining whether gangs effectively disappeared their victims to cut down the official counts of murders, or they committed these crimes for other reasons. The results from this study suggest that Salvadoran gangs had been using disappearance as a method to gain sustained social control among residents of already gang-dominated areas, that together with homicide, disappearance is part of a process of territorial spread and strategic strengthening by which these groups are enhancing their capabilities to interfere in the alliances of Mexican drug trafficking organizations with Central American criminal organizations specializing in the trans-shipment of drugs and in providing access to local markets to distribute and sell drugs. Our findings show that the risk for disappearance has been large even before the truce was in place and that actually, it continues as such and going through a process of geographic expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the twenty years from 1980 to 2000, Australia experienced sustained increases in the incidence of robbery, serious assault, and rape; declines in motor vehicle theft; and stability in homicide and burglary. Persons convicted of homicide, serious assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft received longer sentences. The exceptions were robbery and rape. Limited access to uniform national crime statistics and time-series data on crime-related socioeconomic factors makes explaining these trends difficult. Differences in the responses of states and territories to crime and lack of uniform court and prison statistics make identification of the factors underlying the risk of offending complicated. The risk of punishment seems to be negatively associated with crime rates, but trying to explain this apparent relationship is adventurous. Development of uniform and integrated national crime statistics systems remains a priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few crimes command as much attention as mass murder. Depending on their magnitude and context, some of these incidents become enshrined as landmark historical events. Some give rise to substantial policy change. One such event in Australia was the Port Arthur Massacre that claimed 35 lives in 1996. Using a disaggregation strategy and intervention analysis, this article explores the impact of the Port Arthur massacre on subsequent homicides in Australia. The results of the analysis indicate that the Port Arthur incident appears to have had no lasting effect on homicide in Australia. However, there was an immediate increase in firearm homicides during the 5 days following the massacre. After this sudden increase, the incidence of homicide resumed its long-term downward trend. This sudden increase can be interpreted as evidence of a contagion effect, with the significant response by the Australian Government contributing to the incidence of homicide resuming its long-term trend, rather than continuing to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model to explain fear of crime in Queensland is developed and fitted to data from the 1991 Queensland Crime Victims Survey. Fear of crime is measured from the answers to the question about respondents' feelings of safety when walking alone in their area after dark. The results suggest that factors such as gender, age, poverty, educational level, labor force status, level of incivility in the area, perceived amount of crime in the area, and neighborhood cohesion all make an impact on fear of crime in a way that is consistent with the theory. The results also show that fear of crime in Queensland is explained by very concrete factors that can be subject to intervention and policy formulation by relevant bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a study on crime and fear in Australia. How study is conducted; Materials used to conduct study; Analysis made in study; Results of study; Suggestion made in relation to study; Indepth look at study.