New study underlines pressing violence problem in Brazil’s North and Northeast

On Sunday, police in the northern Brazilian state of Acre came across the corpse of a 14-year-old boy in a woodland area outside the city of Feijó. According to police inquiries, the minor was murdered in a revenge killing, after the deceased was accused of raping his five-year-old cousin. Local police chief Railson Ferreira claims the boy’s step-mother handed him over to a local organized crime gang to enact “vigilante justice” against the teenager.

Indeed, the pages of the local press in Acre are often emblazoned with such horrific crimes, and a recent study from the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) shows that state capital Rio Branco is home to the highest number of murders in Brazil. And the remainder of the top 10 homicide hotspots is completed exclusively by cities in the country’s North and Northeast regions.

Of the northeastern states, Ceará is home to the worst figures, with four cities (Caucaia, Maracanaú, Maranguape, and Juazeiro do Norte) in among the country’s 10 highest murder totals. Three of these cities are of similar size and are located on the outskirts of state capital Fortaleza, a trend seen across the...