The Dominican Republic is one of the six nations with the lowest perception of public safety among the 47 countries classified by the United Nations Development Program in the category of Medium Human Development. Only 38% of the Dominican population considers they are safe and 15% say that they trust other people. The “Report on Human Development 2013,” released last week, found that the other five countries with the lowest perception of public safety are Botswana (31%), Namibia (33%), South Africa (38%), and Gabon (39%), all in Africa, and Paraguay (38%) in South America.
The percentages were obtained from replies to a question in the World Gallup Poll: “Do you feel safe walking at night through the city or the area where you live?” The report collects information from 2001 to 2011 in several 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, the Dominican Republic is only surpassed by South Africa (31.8), Guatemala (38.5), Belize (41.4), El Salvador (69.2) and Honduras (91.6).