The Costa Rica Judicial Police (O.I.J.) recently released the crime statistics for 2013. During 2013 the O.I.J. received 122 filed criminal complaints (denuncias) per day related to property crimes. The breakdown is as follows:
37 per day for assault & robbery
28 per day for theft
20 per day for home invasion
13 per day for robbery in commericial structures
13 per day for vehicle break ins
10 per day for stolen vehicles
The crime that has increased the most has been assault and robbery of pedestrians. These have increased by 37% compared to 2012. According to the report this means that in Costa Rica a pedestrian is robbed every 39 minutes. This crime occurs mostly in the Cantons of San Jose, Alajuela and Heredia. The report also points out that most assaults occur on Fridays between 6 and P.M.
On the other hand home invasions during 2013 fell by 13% compared to 2012 when there were 630 cases reported.
The statistics for murder remained the same from 2012 to 2013 with 407 cases per year which represents 8.6 per 100,000 inhabitants.
