Crime in Haiti

Since the late 2010s, the country has suffered from widespread gang warfare and civil unrest, including a massive prison breakout in 2024.

[4] Preliminary results of the assessment found: The number of reported homicides across all urban settings increased considerably between November 2011 and February 2012.

Reporting a rape to police in Haiti is a difficult and convoluted process, a factor that contributes to underreporting and difficulty in obtaining accurate statistics about sexual violence.

[6] United Nations peacekeepers stationed in Haiti since 2004 have drawn widespread resentment after reports emerged of the soldiers raping Haitian civilians.

[9] A 2009 study reported that up to 225,000 Haitian children are forced to work as domestic servants and are at grave risk of rape at the hands of their captors.

[14] Corruption was always "endemic" in Haiti, but became so "widespread that it bankrupted state finances" under the rule of Jean-Claude Duvalier ("Baby Doc").

[17] Two experts in public administration, Derick Brinkerhoff and Carmen Halpern, said that government corruption is ingrained in Haitian politics.

Because Puerto Rico is a Commonwealth of the United States, shipments are generally not subject to further U.S. Customs inspection after reaching the territory.

[18] U.S. government agencies estimate that 83 metric tons or about eight percent of the cocaine entering the United States in 2006 transited either Haiti or the Dominican Republic.

[20] Crimes such as kidnappings, death threats, murders, armed robberies, home break-ins and car-jacking are not uncommon in Haiti.

Police authorities believe criminals may target travelers arriving on flights from the United States based on advance information gained from local contacts.

[21] In October 2021, seventeen people associated with an American aid group, including five children, were kidnapped by a gang while visiting an orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

[24] On November 7, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed criminal charges against several prominent Haitian gang leaders involved in kidnapping US citizens.

The indictments included charges accusing three gang leaders of involvement in the armed kidnapping of 16 US citizens in Haiti in the Fall of 2021.

Simultaneous with the unsealing the US State Department announced rewards of $3 million for information leading to the capture of the three gang leaders.

The Ohio-based organization Christian Aid Ministries stated that the group was on its way home from helping to build an orphanage when they were stopped and kidnapped at gunpoint.