Crime in Cuba

[lombas]

I was wondering about crime rates in Cuba. As a socialist country, these should be much lower than other comparable countries, I guess. But does anyone have a good overview of these rates?*

Thanks.


* Of course, the same goes for other socialist countries, this discussion shouldn't be narrowed to Cuba alone.

[bellyscratch]

Well, I wouldn't say Cuba was a socialist country, just an attempted socialist country. But it is supposed to be have the lowest crime rates in Latin America. Due to the amount of poverty there is supposed to be quite a bit of petty crime though and also I've heard friends tell me stories of 'mothers pimping out their daughters'. Drug related and violent crime seems to be quite low

[RedArno]

I wanted to post a link but my post count isn't high enough. I'll try to pm it to you.

From what I've learned about Cuba (and I've done some research), corruption is the worst there. During the special period the Cuban government allowed dollar-shops on the island, as an attempt to get the dollars Cubans got from their family in Miami. Unfortunately, the dollar became a 'black market currency' and workers would steal construction materials and sell them to nouveau riches with lots of dollars. Same thing with gas and oil. That's being solved by the Socialist Youth though. They drive along with the truckers to make sure they don't make any stops at private gas stations.
For the rest you'll of course also find some 'minor' crimes like theft on tourist spots and such, but much less than in other Latin countries.

[bobroberts]

It's still a poor country, being kept so in large part do to the efforts of their neighbors to the north. The crime that would usually bring has been kept low seemingly due to an invasive police presence and social policies which reduce the desperation and hopelessness that poverty brings in many other countries. I'm not sure that any official statistics are available either way, and any evidence you will find will be anecdotal.