Crime Type Glossary
All crime statistics on this site are drawn from CEAD — Centro de Estudios y Análisis del Delito, Chile's official crime statistics body under the Ministerio del Interior y Seguridad Pública. CEAD compiles police-recorded incident data from Carabineros de Chile and the Policía de Investigaciones (PDI). The figures represent reported incidence — crimes that were filed with police — and do not capture unreported incidents. The seven crime families below correspond directly to the categories used in CEAD's published datasets.
Life Crimes
Reported offences against life and physical integrity, including homicide and serious assault, sourced from official CEAD police statistics.
This category encompasses the most serious offences against persons recorded by Chilean police, including homicide, femicide, and grievous bodily harm. CEAD disaggregates homicide separately within this family for trend analysis. Reported incidence in this category is generally considered to have relatively lower under-reporting than property crimes, because serious injuries typically require medical attention and are more likely to generate a police record. Rates remain low at the national level but show meaningful variation across communes and regions. All figures reflect police-recorded events and do not constitute a verdict about a territory's character.
Property Crimes
Reported property crime incidents — burglary, theft, and fraud — disaggregated by commune from official CEAD police statistics.
Property crime is consistently the largest contributor to total crime incidence in Chile by volume. It covers theft without violence or intimidation (hurto), residential burglary (robo en lugar habitado), commercial burglary (robo en lugar no habitado), vehicle theft, and fraud. Under-reporting is significant in this family: many minor thefts go unrecorded because victims expect low recovery rates or find the process burdensome. CEAD figures therefore represent a lower bound. Trends over time are meaningful even if absolute levels undercount true incidence. Comparing communes by rate per 100,000 inhabitants controls for population size differences.
Violent Robbery
Reported violent robbery incidents — theft involving force or intimidation — disaggregated by commune from official CEAD police statistics.
Violent robbery (robo con violencia o intimidación) is distinguished from property crime by the use of force, threat, or intimidation against the victim. It includes street muggings, carjackings, and robbery of commercial premises. This category attracts substantial public concern and media coverage, which can influence perception of incidence independent of the statistical trend. Rates per 100,000 inhabitants allow comparisons across communes of very different population sizes. Under-reporting is lower than for property crime because the violent element typically leads victims to file a report for documentation purposes.
Disorder
Reported disorder and public nuisance incidents disaggregated by commune from official CEAD police statistics.
Disorder (incivilidades) covers offences that affect public order and quality of life without necessarily involving direct violence or significant property loss. Examples include public intoxication, vandalism, threatening behaviour, and illegal occupations of public space. This category is especially sensitive to policing strategy and reporting culture: communes with more active community policing or higher public trust in institutions tend to generate more records. Trends should be interpreted in light of local enforcement context rather than taken as a direct proxy for underlying behaviour. Source: CEAD official police statistics.
Domestic Violence
Reported domestic and intra-family violence incidents disaggregated by commune, sourced from official CEAD police statistics.
Domestic and intra-family violence incidents are recorded under this CEAD family. It includes physical, psychological, and economic violence within family or household settings. Under-reporting is well-documented internationally and in Chile: many victims do not file reports due to fear, economic dependency, or distrust of institutions. Reported figures therefore represent a fraction of true incidence. Year-on-year increases may reflect either a real rise in violence or improved reporting following awareness campaigns or legal reforms — both interpretations are plausible without additional context. Source: CEAD official police statistics.
Drug Crimes
Reported drug-related offences including possession and trafficking, disaggregated by commune from official CEAD police statistics.
This family captures police-recorded drug offences under Chilean law, principally Law 20.000 on drug trafficking and possession. It includes possession for personal use, small-scale dealing, and organised trafficking, as disaggregated by CEAD from police records. Reported incidence in this category is heavily influenced by enforcement activity: communes with targeted anti-drug operations will record higher counts independent of any change in underlying drug use. Rates per 100,000 inhabitants compare enforcement-recorded activity relative to population size. Source: CEAD official police statistics.
Weapons Offences
Reported weapons offences including illegal possession and trafficking, disaggregated by commune from official CEAD police statistics.
Weapons offences cover illegal possession, carrying, and trafficking of firearms and other prohibited weapons under Chilean law (Law 17.798). CEAD records incidents reported by Carabineros and PDI arising from stops, arrests, and operations. This category has grown in prominence in policy debates about organised crime. Rates vary significantly across communes and correlate with other violent crime categories. Reported figures reflect police activity as much as underlying prevalence; the true number of illegally held weapons in circulation is unknown. Source: CEAD official police statistics.
Notes on interpreting these figures
All crime categories use rate per 100,000 inhabitants as the primary metric. This controls for the large population differences between Chilean communes (from a few hundred to over a million residents) and allows fair comparison. Raw absolute counts are not displayed in rankings because they systematically favour larger communes.
Under-reporting varies substantially by crime type. Contact crimes with a victim who seeks medical attention (vida, robos_violentos) tend to have higher reporting rates. Property crimes, drug offences, and domestic violence are under-reported to varying degrees. No correction for under-reporting is applied — figures represent exactly what CEAD publishes from police records.
For full detail on data collection, rate calculation, trend methodology, and data quality, see the Methodology page.