Peacefulness improved overall in Mexico in the past few years, however, the country continues to face rising levels of gender-based violence. In recent years there has been a growing social awareness about gender-based violence in Mexico.
Among other factors, this is due to the consistent increase in the levels of family violence and sexual violence throughout the country, as well as the increasing prevalence of the crime of femicide — that is, the murder of a woman for reasons of gender. Across the country, national survey data has revealed that In the newly released edition of the Mexico Peace Index MPI , we show that, while peacefulness improved overall in Mexico in the past few years, the country continues to face rising levels of gender-based violence.
Over the past eight years, the rates of the two components not associated with gender-based violence — robbery and assault — have risen and fallen within a relatively normal range, never moving more than 35 percent above or below their levels. In contrast, the rates of the two components associated with gender-based violence — family violence and sexual assault — have consistently increased each year.
As a result, both rates have more than doubled since , as shown in the figure below. Campeche had the largest percentage increases of any state in both sexual assault and family violence. In , Colima had the worst rate of family violence in the country for the fifth consecutive year, with 1, cases per , people, almost triple the national rate.
Similarly, Morelos had the highest rate of sexual assault in the country for the eighth consecutive year, with cases per , people, also almost triple the national rate. According to national survey data, sexual assault makes up about two-thirds of the violence that women experience in public spaces, and about two-thirds of those acts are committed by strangers.
