Violence in Peru

In the 2010s, despite the evisceration of armed insurgency and over a decade of rapid and sustained economic growth, perceptions of insecurity have increased in Peru. Indeed, in 2010 and 2012, perceptions of insecurity were higher in Peru than in any other of the 14 countries surveyed by the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). Perceptions of insecurity in Peru was 56.6 on a 100 point scale (with higher numbers indicating more insecurity). At first glance, this finding is perplexing, given that Peru has one of the lowest homicide rates in the hemisphere (7.2 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2015). By contrast, in El Salvador, perceptions of insecurity were nearly ten points less (46.9) than in Peru, despite a homicide rate many times greater (81.2 per 100,000). What explains this seemingly paradoxical evidence?