Homicides Increase among Blacks and Youth, Study Shows

06/06/2017 - 12h08

A Brazilian historical reality has become even more dramatically illustrated: more and more youths and blacks are dying in the country. This is what the Atlas da Violência (Atlas of Violence) 2017, which was published on Monday (the 5th) morning, reveals.

Prepared by IPEA (A research and statistical institution related to the Federal Government), in partnership with the Brazilian Forum for Public Security, the study analyzed data available from the Ministry of Health up to 2015. In that year, there were 59 thousand homicides in Brazil, a rate of 28,9 per 100 thousand inhabitants.

"In [just] three weeks the total number of murders in the country surpassed the number of people killed in all of the terrorist attacks in the world in the first five months of 2017", the report compared.

The typical profile of the victims: male, young, black, with low levels of education. According to the report, the rate of growth in homicides involving youth had been falling - from 20,3% in the decade of the 90's to 2,5% in the first decade of the 21st century.

Between 2005 and 2015, however, there was an increase of 17,2% in the rate among individuals between 15 and 29 years of age - climbing to 60,9 deaths per 100 thousand youths.

Violence also increased among blacks between 2005 and 2015. While the death by homicide rate for blacks increased by 18,2%, the death rate for non-black individuals decreased by 12,2%.

The study's authors estimate that a black individual has a 23,5% greater chance of being murdered compared to other colors/ethnicities, even controlling for age, sex, level of education, marital status and neighborhood of residence.

Translated by LLOYD HARDER

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