Brazil Records 22 Percent Fewer Violent Deaths in Five Months Than Last Year

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil recorded a 22 percent decrease in violent deaths in the first five months of this year compared to the same period in 2018. This is evidenced by the national homicide index created by G1 news site, based on official data from all 26 states and the Federal District.

In May alone, there were 3,521 murders, against 4,327 in the same month last year. In the five month period, there were 17,907 violent deaths — 5,100 less than in January, February, March, April, and May 2018.

The G1 expected the downward trend in homicides in the country in the balance of the first two months of the year, which showed a reduction of 25 percent in relation to the same period last year, and in the balance of violent deaths in 2018, which has seen the steepest drop over the last eleven years of the Brazilian Public Security Forum historical series, with 13 percent.

The number of murders, however, remains high.

The survey is part of the Violence Monitor, a G1 partnership with the Center for the Study of Violence of the University of São Paulo (NEV/USP) and the Brazilian Forum on Public Security.

The data show that:

• There were 5,108 fewer deaths in the first five months of 2019;
• 23 states and the Federal District showed a reduction in murders in the period;
• Two states registered a drop of more than thirty percent: Sergipe and Ceará;
• Only three states reported higher murder rates: Piauí, Tocantins, and Roraima.

Among the measures taken to reduce violence are:

• Stricter actions in prisons, such as constant search operations and implementation of the Differentiated Disciplinary Regime (RDD);
• Isolation or transfer of heads of criminal groups to maximum security prisons;
• The development of an exclusive secretariat to deal with penitentiary administration;
• The introduction of a police precinct for the investigation of murder cases;
• Cooperation between the security and justice forces.

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