Brazil’s violence becoming more and more concentrated in problem areas

Statistics from the nationwide Violence Map study released this week showed that the murder rate in Brazil rose significantly in 2017, reaching a record-setting absolute number of 65,602 homicides in that year. However, countrywide numbers are unable to give the full picture of violence rates in Brazil, which are becoming more intensely concentrated in specific areas.

The same study showed that despite nationwide increases in murder rates, these figures actually decreased in the Southeast, South, and Center-west regions of Brazil. Together, these three areas make up roughly two-thirds of the total national population.

Therefore, it was in the remaining two regions, the Northeast and North, where the spikes in homicides were found. Murders in these areas increased by 68 percent between 2007 and 2017.

This week, the latest Violence Map study was published, focusing on the country’s municipalities and further underlining the concentration of homicides in Brazil.

The study’s authors, from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and the Brazilian Forum of Public Security (FBSP), arrived at an astonishing statistic: 50 percent of the...