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Launched last week, the Violence Map IV details the stark statistics behind the rise in violent death rates for young Brazilians over the last decade. In 1980, 30% of young people who died in Brazil were murdered. By 2002, that figure had leapt to 54%, or 49,000 young people. Fifteen thousand of whom were killed by firearms. Between 1993 and 2002 homicides amongst young Brazilians aged between fifteen and twenty-four increased 88%, or 5.5% year on year.
The average age of the majority of homicide victims is 20. From the age of fourteen the risk of falling victim to a homicide increases, reaching its peak at twenty years of age. In 2002, the year for when the most up-to-date figures are available, 2,505 deaths of youths aged twenty were recorded.
International shame
In the ranking of international youth homicide rates, Brazil takes fifth place amongst the sixty-seven countries for which comparable statistics are available, behind Colombia, the Virgin Islands, El Salvador and Venezuela. When the homicide rate amongst the population as a whole is considered, Brazil ranks in fourth place behind Colombia, El Salvador and Russia.
A closer look at statistics from Brazil’s states reveals that Rio de Janeiro now boasts the highest youth homicide rate in the country, as well as the highest homicide rate amongst the population as a whole. In the Violence Map III, Rio was the leader in youth homicides but took second place to the state of Pernambuco in the overall homicide rate. The latest report, however, put Rio in first place in both counts.
Violence on the increase in smaller cities
The Violence Map IV report also shows the tendency towards an increase in homicide in smaller cities. Until 1998 the highest homicide rates were concentrated in the state capitals and their outlying suburbs and towns. From 1999 the statistics demonstrate an increase in crimes committed in municipalities outside those areas.
From 1999 to 2002 homicides increased by 8% in the interior of states, while average increases in state capitals were just 1.6%, and 2.4% in their outlying suburbs and towns.
In the interview with O Globo, Waiselfisz suggested that this tendency could be explained by the growth of new hubs outside of the larger state capitals. He also added that public security policies were often limited to the state capitals.
Deaths of young people in relation to overall population
Closer analysis of the four editions of the Violence Map reveals more disturbing tendencies. While the mortality rate for Brazilians is dropping, the mortality rate for young people is on the increase. The mortality rate in Brazil decreased from 633 to 573 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants from 1980 to 2000. During those two decades Brazil’s youth mortality rate increased from 128 to 133 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, shows the study.
Five or six decades ago, epidemics and infectious illnesses represented the main cause of death amongst young people. They have been gradually replaced by the so-called "external causes" of death: mainly traffic accidents and homicides.
In 2002 there were 35 million young people in Brazil. Seven million of them did not work or study. According to UNESCO, the high level of violence in Brazil is closely related to a lack of perspectives for youth.
Disarmament is one answer
The report reveals that a third of youth homicides are carried out with firearms, and points to disarmament as one of the ways to reverse the homicide rate.
The Brazilian government launched the Disarmament Statute as one of its strategies to try to contain spiraling crime. The Statute both prohibits the ownership of firearms amongst the civilian population and introduces stricter penalties for illegal possession of a weapon.
UNESCO representative in Brazil Jorge Werthein notes that not only in Brazil, but in Latin America as a whole, the funds needed to develop parallel policies to deal with the problem are lacking. "Resources need to be increased, especially in the area of education", he observes.
Sources: Jornal Nacional; UNESCO (www.unesco.org.br); JBr on line- Jornal de Brasília, Folha de São Paulo; O Globo (Rodrigo Rangel), Cruzeiro Net, Jornal do Comércio RJ.
Reproduzido do COAV
COAV é a sigla em inglês para ‘Crianças e jovens em Violência Armada Organizada’
The report is the fourth in the Violence Map series, supported by UNESCO and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and based on data supplied by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. The author of the report and the three previous editions in the series is the sociologist Julio Jacobo Waiselfisz.
According to Waiselfisz, the statistics demonstrate the urgent need for action and policies that target young people. In an interview with Brazil’s O Globo newspaper Waiselfisz said that "solutions for the problem of security must take into account young people". |
Brazil ranks fifth in the world in youth homocide