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Dominican Republic has lowest perception of safety among 47 countries

Suicide rate is low; more men than women commit suicide

SD. Among the 47 countries classified by the United Nations Development Program in the category of Medium Human Development, the Dominican Republic is among the six nations with the lowest perception of public safety. Only 38% of the population considers itself to be safe and 15% say that they trust people.

The "Report on human development 2013," which was released last week , notes that another five countries with the lowest perception of public safety are Botswana (31%), Namibia (33%), South Africa (38%), and Gabon (39%), are all in Africa, and Paraguay (38%) in South America.

Those percentages were obtained in the people's answers of "yes" to the question of the World Gallup Poll: "Do you feel safe walking at night through the city or the area where you live?" the report explains. It collects information from the years from 2001 to 2011 in different categories.

Compared with the 47 countries with Medium Human Development, the Dominican Republic is not the country with the highest homicide rate, but it has the sixth highest number of cases.

With 25 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Quisqueya is only surpassed by South Africa (31.8), Guatemala (38.5), Belize (41.4), El Salvador (69.2) and Honduras (91.6).

Men commit more suicides

The report indicates the suicide rate per 100,000 inhabitants. Of 18 countries with Medium Human Development, the Dominican Republic is among those with the lowest rate.

According to the data, men in this country commit suicide more often than women. Among men a 3.9 suicides are reported for each 100,000 inhabitants versus 0.7 for the women.

The tendency of more death among men is repeated in the other countries with the same type of Human Development. The exception is Tajikistan, in central Asia. Compared with other countries, it has a low suicide rate but if it is divided among the sexes, it only has a slight difference, with 2.9/100,000 for men and 2.3/100,000 for women, according to the report.

In order to determine the rate, the study explains that they take the "total estimated number for deliberately self-inflected wounds."

For these numbers, the study took the suicides reported between the years 2001 and 2010.

There is labor satisfaction

On a scale in which 10 is the highest level of satisfaction, in the Dominican Republic there is a general satisfaction with life of 4.7. The highest score was obtained by Thailand and El Salvador, both with 6.7.

In spite of the former score, 76,.3% said that they are satisfied with their jobs. This amount of persons answered like this to the question of the World Gallup Poll: "Are you satisfied or unsatisfied with your job?"

The recent report indicates that the country went down 15 positions in the IHD Rankings on Inequality, an indicator whose calculations take into account inequality in health, education and income. So, of 132 countries, the Dominican Republic occupies the 79th position.

Nevertheless, the IHD increased from 0.689 to 0.702 between 2011 and 2012, improving its positions in the world ranking of 187 countries and number 23 of the 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Poverty is not crime

The report points out that the homicide index is the highest in Latin America and theCAribbean (22.2/100,000).

It says that contrary to what is usually thought, crime is not usually higher in the poorest cities. "Calcutta is not only one of the poorest cities in India, and in fact, the world, but it also presents the lowest rate of violent crimes in all the Indian cities," says the report. The reason is that Calcutta has a system of basic public services. "If the people do not have access to the services, they may have a greater tendency towards crime," they explain.