Public safety has become one of the main concerns of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean and is a barrier for the sustainable human development. People and communities are restricted in their real life choices and organization due to threats against personal and property security and against fundamental public goods.

The Human Development Report for Central America addresses this issue from a holistic perspective. The central message of the report is that the problem of insecurity have a solution and this solution is possible. Partial strategies based on purely coercive or preventive notions, not further consider consistency with the justice system and the structure of values ​​of civility have failed. The heavy hand and soft hand must evolve towards intelligent hand and citizen security strategy for human development.