Out of the three million tourists who visited the country in 2017, 204 reported assaults with the authorities, according to the figures of the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ).
The data also shows that the behavior during this year is similar. Up to August, 138 complaints for assaults have been recorded. Most of the events -of 2018- occurred in the central canton of San José, an area that hosts 43% of the incidents.
Daniel Calderón, director of the Public Force, said that being the city with the largest number of people also makes it the area with more cases.
The statistics of the judicial police indicate that the main modus operandi for assaults during 2018 are snatchings (59), intimidations with a firearm (33) or bladed weapons (31).
In addition, the data shows that the largest number of victims is American (25) and Canadian (12). The list continues with victims from England (11), France (11), and Germany (11).
Calderón explained that in recent months strategies have been designed to lower cases in hot spots. In fact, in the last three months the cases have decreased.
This is number of complaints per month:
• January: 27
• February: 25
• March: 21
• April: 17
• May: 18
• June: 14
• July: 16