As elections loom in Mexico, prospec-tive politicians are finding that people care most about crime. Despite the endless proliferation of shiny new specialist police forces, each supposedly less "corrupt" than the last, the truth is that things are getting no better. So low is Mexicans' faith in the ability of the criminal-justice system to bring any criminal to justice―according to a poll done for a specialist institute on criminology last year―that about four-fifths of victims do not even bother to report the crime. Some 44% of those interviewed said they lived in an atmosphere of some, or great, insecurity, a figure that rises to 83% in Mexico City. This is not only a disastrous state of affairs for the average Mexican, but a big disincentive to foreign investment. The cost of security, especially against kidnapping (a real threat), can be prohibitive.
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