On average, an estimated 526,000 people died violently each year in 2004–09. This figure includes an estimated  55,000 direct conflict deaths, 396,000 intentional homicides, 54,000 ‘unintentional’ homicides, and 21,000 killings during legal interventions. Far more people died violently in non-conflict settings than were killed in conflicts.

The number of violent deaths is frequently used as a proxy for measuring armed violence, because killings are likely to be recorded more systematically than other crimes.

Rates of femicide—acts of homicide in which the victim is a woman or a girl—are significantly higher in countries and territories affected by high or very high overall homicide rates. With a rate of 12.0 per 100,000 people, El Salvador is the country with the highest femicide rate, followed by Jamaica (10.9), Guatemala (9.7), and South Africa (9.6) (2012).

Together with local partners, the Small Arms Survey conducted a nationwide household survey in 2010 to fill some of the data gaps and to generate an evidence-based understanding of violence in post-war Liberia. This second Issue Brief of five relies on the survey findings, key informant interviews with local representatives—including city mayors, police officers, religious leaders, students, elders, and heads of grassroots organizations— and background papers produced by researchers in Liberia (Shilue, 2010; Blair, 2011; Dziewanski, 2011a).

Seven years after the end of the civil war, in 2010, the Small Arms Survey administered a nationwide household survey in Liberia to generate knowledge on perceptions of security and present-day patterns of victimization, respondents’ exposure to violence, and responses to threats in communities.

Since 2000, Guyana has seen a rise in violent crime associated with gangs and organized crime syndicates, which have created drug and weapon problems in the country. Cocaine, trafficked from neighbouring Venezuela, is transited through Guyana en route to Europe and the United States. Gangs also utilize the country’s porous borders with Brazil, a major weapons manufacturer, to smuggle arms into Guyana and ship them to other countries in the Caribbean.

Co-published with Interdisciplinary Analysts, Nepal Madhes Foundation, and Saferworld.

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Initiated in 2008, the Yemen Armed Violence Assessment (YAVA) comprises a multi-year field-based project designed to generate quantitative and qualitative analysis of the drivers and dynamics of armed violence in the country. The YAVA is designed to support efforts to prevent and reduce armed violence in Yemen, not least by the Yemeni government, which has taken significant steps in recent years to address weapons carrying in cities and constrain the arms trade.

In mid-2008, the Lebanon Armed Violence Assessment (LAVA) undertook the most extensive public survey to date on arms and security issues in Southern Lebanon. The LAVA survey included interviews with some 1,388 households in southern and administrative districts (‘qazas’) under the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Security Council mandate.

By Katherine Aguirre et al., co-published with CERAC (centro de recursos para el análisis de conflictos).

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A joint publication of the Danish Demining Group and the Small Arms Survey.

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