study of crime in Central America; and its relation to poverty

John French shared the following links on the living in CR group:
 

The press release can be found on this web page, and the link to the
full report in PDF form is at the bottom of the page:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2007-05-23.html

There is a Spanish language version that can be downloaded directly
in PDF form from:

http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Central-america-study-es.pdf

I took a quick look; there are some bizarre survey responses in there (what does it actually say about a latin culture responding to a presumably latin surveyor, on the question of people who say it is possible to bribe a police officer?)

But one thing most of us agree with: that crime and poverty are related here; of course the nature of that relation (just to user Nica and CR as the examples - is Nicaragua poorer than C.R. because of having more crime; or does it have more crime because it is poorer) is an age-old question that might not have a factual answer. 

What I did decide, however, is that this answer:

Nicaragua poorer than C.R. because of having more crime

allows the people of Nicaragua more opportunity to fix their own problem whereas this one:

Nicaragua has more crime than C.R. because it is poorer

leaves them more at the mercy of other people to solve their problems.