UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (Xinhua) -- A new UN study said Monday that crime victims account for 19 percent of homicide deaths, underscoring a constant link between organized crime and violent deaths.
According to the study by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), crime alone was responsible for 19 percent of all homicides in 2017.
It causes "many more deaths worldwide than armed conflict and terrorism combined," said UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, in the preface of the executive summary of Global Study on Homicide 2019.
Overall, some 464,000 people across the world were victims of homicidal violence in 2017, more than five times the number killed in armed conflict over the same period, the study showed.
Like violent conflict, organized crime "destabilizes countries, undermines socioeconomic development and erodes the rule of law," according to UNODC.
Fedotov insisted that unless the international community takes decisive steps, targets under Sustainable Development Goal 16 of the UN 2030 Agenda -- to significantly reduce all forms of violence and related death rates by 2030 -- will not be met.
