Crime in Venezuela

Crime in Venezuela is widespread. In the early 2000s, violent crime—such as murder, kidnapping, and robbery—began to surge as a consequence of the 2002–2003 Venezuelan general strike against President Hugo Chávez, which was caused by the institutional instability of his Bolivarian government, underfunding of police resources, and extreme inequality. From then on, homicide rates began climbing dramatically each year. By 2008 Venezuela became among the most violent countries in the world. In 2014 the United Nations attributed crime to the poor political and economic environment in the country—which, at the time, had the second highest murder rate in the world. Chávez's government sought a cultural hegemony by promoting class conflict and social fragmentation, which in turn encouraged "criminal gangs to kill, kidnap, rob and extort", according to Maria C. Werlau, a Cuban-born anti-Castro activist and founder and executive director of the think tank Free Society Project. Upon Chávez's death in 2013, Venezuela was ranked the most insecure nation in the world by Gallup.

Crime has also continued to increase under Chávez's successor, President Nicolás Maduro, who continued Chávez's policies that disrupted Venezuela's socioeconomic status.

By 2015, crime, which was often the topic Venezuelans worried about the most according to polls, was the second largest concern compared to shortages in Venezuela. Crimes related to shortages and hunger increased shortly after with growing incidents of looting occurring throughout the country. Most crime in Venezuela remains unpunished according to Venezuela's Prosecutor General's Office, as 98% of crimes in Venezuela do not result in prosecution.

In spite of significant socioeconomic problems, the murder rate in Venezuela decreased between 2017 and 2020. Venezuela's murder rate decreased from 92 per 100,000 in 2016 to 81.4 in 2018, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), due in part to criminals joining millions of other Venezuelans in fleeing the country. The murder rate declined even further to 60.3 in 2019.