Analysis of the State of the Crime of Extortion in Honduras in 2022
In 2022, cases of extortion soared 153 percent as compared to 2021, reaching the second highest records this decade, with 1,824 reports, second only to 2013 with 1,929 reports. Two municipalities account for 62 percent of complaints of extortion nationwide: Distrito Central and San Pedro Sula have the highest incidence.
Of all the reported cases of extortion, 95 percent register in the urban area, and 60 percent of victims of this offense are between 31 and 50 years of age. Most reports of extortion were filed by men, comprising 69.4 percent of all reports.
Analysis also provides profiles of Distrito Central and San Pedro Sula, the municipalities that register the highest extortion incidence. These are the two most violent municipalities in the country, accounting for 19.3 percent of the total number of violent deaths.
In Honduras, the workforce (people of working age) is around 3.9 million individuals nationwide. Distrito Central and San Pedro Sula account for 22 percent of this population. Distrito Central and San Pedro Sula account for 31 percent of the country’s unemployed.
Distrito Central and San Pedro Sula are two of the six municipalities with a high Human Development Index, 0.732 and 0.708 respectively.
This analysis is the outcome of strategic coordination between the Secretariat of Security's Sub-Secretariat for Security in Police Affairs in Honduras and national institutions that produce information on citizen security1, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the InfoSegura Regional Project. The goal is to strengthen the capability to develop gender-responsive evidence-based public policies with an important prevention component, based on quality, consensual and transparent official country information.
Data validated to date available at the Citizen Security Open Data Portal (Spanish):
Download Full Analysis for 2022
This article was originally published on the UNDP Honduras website.
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1 Source:
- Technical Working Group on Crime: National Police/Police Anti-Gang and Against Organized Crime Directorate (DIPAMPCO), Sub-Secretariat for Security in Police Affairs, Technical Inter-Institutional Coordination Unit (UTECI).
- Preliminary data provided by Working Group on Violent Deaths: National Police, Public Ministry/Directorate of Forensic Medicine. National Registry of Persons. Citizen Coexistence and Security Observatories. National Statistics Institute. IUDPAS/UNAH. Technical Inter-Institutional Coordination Unit (UTECI)/Subsecretary for Police Affairs.
- National Statistics Institute, Permanent Household Survey 2022.
UNDP, Human Development Report, Honduras, 2022.
