Survey says..

[Keith Woolford]

A recent survey of Panamanians commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce had the following findings.

http://www.infolatam.com/2017/02/23/70-los-panamenos-percibe-pais-inseguro-segun-sondeo/

70% of the Panamanian population perceives that the country is not secure, while 17% said to have been the victim of a crime in 2016, according to a survey released by the main business chamber.

The data are part of the eighth report of Citizen Security framed in the Results of the Fourth Survey of victimization and Perception of Citizen Security In Panama 2016, with the exception of the province of Darien and the indigenous comarcas.

The measurement results presented by the Observatory of Citizen Security of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of Panama (CCIAP), with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the consultancy IPSOS, reveal that 17 % of the surveyed population was the victim in the past 12 months of a situation that attentive to their safety.

The President of the cciap, Jorge Garcia Icaza said that with this report the guild business "provides the country with an additional tool for decision-making, from the visual security understood as the responsibility of all citizens".

In relation to the perception of safety, according to the report, 70% of respondents said that the country is insecure, compared to 67% reflected in the survey of 2014.

According to the survey, 81% was the victim of a crime once and the 19 % more than once.

By comparing the surveys of 2014 and 2016, the provinces in which the perception of insecurity presented the greatest growth were: Chiriquí (West, 20 %), Bocas del Toro (West, 18 %) and Panama (center, 7 %).

With regard to the dynamics of victimization in recent years, the report highlights that was 10 % in 2010; 16 % in 2013 and 19 % in 2014.

The study found that of the crimes reported, the 51 % 28 % was theft, robbery, 13 % or 9 % aggression and the murder of a family member.

The data show that there is a strong emphasis on crimes against property (burglary and theft), which accounted for 79 % of the facts that were reported.

On the other hand, the results show that the average economic losses as a result of these events was $510, while by age group of the population older than 50 years reflects the increased cost by the facts, with $716 or more.

For women it is more expensive damage against their security in the areas of health, at $542, with a difference of $280 with respect to men.

The cciap stressed that the survey seeks to establish the subjective factors that complement the official figures of crime, in addition to being familiar with the different aspects that affect the security of the citizens in rural and urban contexts, gender, with representation at the level of provinces.

The survey, applied in urban places to 1,207 persons of both sexes over the age of 18 years, has a confidence level of 95 % and a maximum allowable margin of error of +/-3,03%.