Homicide rate continues to decrease in Brazil, but remains high

The homicide rate continues to drop in Brazil, as it has done each year since 2019. The Violence Monitor survey commissioned by news website G1 showed a 3.4 percent reduction in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2022. 

If projected for the next six months, the country could end 2023 with its lowest total of violent deaths since 2011. 

However, while decreasing, Brazil’s homicide rates remain very high. There were 19,700 recorded murders in the last six months, corresponding to 110 per day. The results, however, are not complete, as the survey does not take into account deaths caused at the hands of the police. This year, violent police operations in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Bahia have resulted in dozens of deaths that are questioned by human rights agencies.

The northern state of Amapá is the most violent in the country in per capita terms. There, two organized crime factions are engaging in a war over territory and drug trafficking routes. Experts say that the conflict in Amapá is relatively recent, with the arrival of groups linked to major drug gangs from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

The Brazilian Report showed in June that, counterintuitively, the consolidation of organized crime helps to push down homicide rates. Data shows that violence increases while rival gangs are at war, and murder figures drop significantly when a crime faction obtains dominance over a given region.

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