Over 50,000 people murdered in Brazil in 2013

According to an NGO on public security, an average 5.8 people were

Published on 11/11/2014 - 13:28 By Camila Maciel reports from Agência Brasil - Brasília

Parlamentares realizam ato contra a violência no Brasil afixando cruzes na Praça dos Três Poderes

Over 50,000 people murdered in Brazil in 2013José Cruz/Agência Brasil

Nearly six people were killed per hour in Brazil in 2013, according to the Public Safety Yearbook (Anuário de Segurança Pública) released today (Nov. 11) by an NGO called Brazilian Forum on Public Safety (FBSP in the Portuguese-language acronym). The report is in its eighth edition.

There were 50,806 victims of murder (considering cases where killers were found willing to kill), or an average 5.8 people per hour. In proportion to the population, there were an average 25.2 deaths for every 100,000 people. Compared to 2012, when a rate of 25.9 killings was recorded for every 100,000, there was a reduction of 2.6%. In absolute numbers, however, there was an increase of 1.1%, considering that the number of victims recorded for 2012 was 50,241.

According to FBSP, the sharper reduction in terms of ratio per capita can be explained by a population growth.

The forum estimates that murder rates can be reduced by 65.5% by 2030, which would mean successive reductions of 5.7% each year. The projection is based on the figures for the state of São Paulo, where the rates have been declining since the 1990s.

São Paulo remains the state with the lowest casualty rate, with 10.8 killings for every 100,000 people, 12.9% down from 2012's 12.4 ratio. In absolute numbers, the total number of victims dropped from 5,209 to 4,739, an improvement of 9.02%. However, the organization warns, the data reported by the state government is categorized in in Group 2 in terms of accuracy, which suggests that there may have been unreported cases.

The state of Alagoas had the worst ratio with 64.7 victims for every group of 100,000 people, a rate 0.4% higher than that of 2012.

Bahia, in turn, is the state with the highest absolute number of deaths – 5,440, which reflects a rate of 36.1 murders for every 100,000 people. While the figures remain alarming, the FBSP board noted a 7.47% decline in the total number of victims and 12.9% in the murder rate compared to 2012.


Translated by Mayra Borges


Fonte: Over 50,000 people murdered in Brazil in 2013

Edition: Denise Griesinger / Nira Foster

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