Publication date: Jul 03, 2026
Homicide is a major form of violent injury in Latin America, yet post-pandemic increases may reflect not only changes in overall levels of lethal violence but also changes in how victimization is socially distributed. This repeated cross-sectional study examined homicide deaths in Peru from 2017 to 2025 across pre-pandemic, pandemic, and post-pandemic periods. Victims were characterized by sex, age, education, marital status, and ethnicity, and concentration was assessed within each dimension and across intersecting victim profiles. The post-pandemic period showed a measurable narrowing in the social composition of homicide victims. Deaths became increasingly concentrated among men, adults aged 30-59 years, and single individuals, with more modest concentration among those with secondary education and those classified as Mestizo. These findings suggest that post-pandemic homicide dynamics may involve changes in concentration as well as magnitude, with implications for surveillance, prevention targeting, and understanding violent injury in low- and middle-income settings.
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| COVID‑19 pandemic | |
| Homicide | |
| injury epidemiology | |
| social inequalities | |
| victim profiles | |
| violence surveillance |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | injury |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |