Brazil: An overview of violent crime and the law and order situation in Brazil, with a specific focus on the metropolitan regions of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (2001 - August 2002)

What follows focuses on the prevalence of violent crime in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. More general reports of violent crime in Brazil also tend to focus on the situation of these two cities and their corresponding states (World Bank Jan. 2000; Brazzil Oct. 1999). Violent crime which takes place within the confines of police stations, prisons and other detention facilities, while widely acknowledged and reported (HRW 2002; AI 25 Mar. 2002; Global Justice Center 19 June 2001; ibid. 23 Aug. 2000), is not the focus of this Response.

Two reports in particular offer an overview of the prevalence of crime in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro: the World Bank's January 2000 report entitled Violent Crime in Latin America Cities: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo and the magazine Brazzil's October 1999 article entitled "It's War: Brazil Goes After Its Mafia." Please note that the latter article is attached to BRA39089.E of 25 June 2002.

The World Bank's analysis of criminal trends is based on data collected over the period of 1983 to 1998 (Jan. 2000). The report employs a variety of statistical tools to determine spatial and longitudinal criminal trends, determinants of victimization, and socio-eocnomic determinants of homicide, among other things. Please refer to this report for further details and their main conclusions.

According to the World Bank, cities within Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo's metropolitan regions, including the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo themselves, "appear to be" among the most violent urban centres in the Americas (Jan. 2000). In 1998, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro had homicide rates of 55.8 and 52.8 per 100,000 inhabitants respectively (ibid.). Two other urban centres in these states, Diadema (Sao Paulo) and Belford Roxo (Rio de Janeiro), had homicide rates of 146.1 and 76.5 per 100,000 inhabitants respectively, which:

...are on the same level as cities that have recently gone through (El Salvador and Guatemala) or are still confronting situations of internal military conflict with organized political groups (Colombia) (ibid.).

The World Bank report states that "available data indicate" that the police are responsible for approximately ten per cent of the homicides in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro (ibid.). Further, surveys on victimization indicate that three per cent of the population and five per cent of the male population were victims of police extortion in the previous 12 months in Rio de Janeiro (ibid.).

One of several main findings of the report is that, while homicide rates overall had actually levelled off, particularly in the final four years of data collection for the study, this trend was not reflected in homicide rates of young men (ibid.). According to the report, these homicide rates have "stabilized at a very high level," at more than 200 per 100,000 inhabitants (ibid.).

Citing similar statistics, Brazzil, an English-language magazine, terms Brazil's metropolises "true slaughterhouses" (Oct. 1999). The article reports that:

Crime has spiraled in São Paulo since 1996. Robbery has increased by 75% when comparing the first semester of 1996 to the same period in 1998. There was also a 73 percent increase in car thefts, 43 percent in other types of thefts and an 8 percent rise in homicides. To deal with the increase in robbery, banks have limited to $50 the amount of cash people can withdraw from automatic cashiers after 10 PM.

There were 5,157 murders in São Paulo last year, the immense majority of them in the city's poorer neighbourhoods. In the Jardins area of the capital, a tree-lined neighborhood preferred by the well-to-do, there was not even one homicide in 1998. Richer Paulistanos (residents of São Paulo) have retreated into gated communities with around-the-clock armed security. São Paulo State has a police force of 120,000 police officers, but an army of 400,000 private security guards. In Rio and São Paulo, running a red light at night is no longer considered an infraction and the police will not give tickets for that. People do it for security reasons, to avoid being mugged at the intersections.

A recent study by InfoEstado, the research branch of daily O Estado de São Paulo, showed that 57 percent of the São Paulo population has already thought about leaving the city due to its violence. Another 55 percent said they have been forced to either change their routine or give up doing something they usually like to do, also for fear. The same study, published in October, revealed that drug trafficking and homicides are the two most feared crimes by Paulistanos, pointed by 24 percent of the respondents. Rape and robbery, each chosen by 18% of the population, follow as their worst fears (Brazzil Oct. 1999).

According to this article, in Rio de Janeiro, only 15 per cent of crimes are solved (ibid.). The article cites a lack of equipment and personnel (ibid.). Further, "corruption is rampant in the police forces across the country," and some police are known to "moonlight for the drug cartels" (ibid.). The prevalence of drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime are also discussed in this article (ibid.).

The Rio de Janeiro-based Global Justice Center (Centro de Justiça Global) provides a more detailed look at both police violence in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and execution-style killings in Sao Paulo in its 2000 report, Human Rights in Brazil. Again, statistics cited in this report are largely based on the late 1990s. With regard to police violence, the Global Justice Center writes that, "in the past ten years," Sao Paulo state's military police had killed 6,672 people; a trend which "intensified in the first half of 2000" (Global Justice Centre 2000). According to the report, the Office of the Police Ombudsman had analyzed the autopsy reports of the Sao Paulo victims and found that more than half (51 per cent) had been shot in the back and almost a quarter (23 per cent) had been shot five times or more, suggesting that the victims had been summarily executed rather than killed in legitimate confrontations (ibid.). Further, approximately 60 per cent of those killed by police had no prior criminal record; a figure that has "remained relatively constant" (ibid.).

The Global Justice Center also provides statistics on the prevalence of chacinas ("slaughters" or multiple executions) in Sao Paulo and Sao Paulo state (ibid.). According to this report, from January to November 2000, 79 chacinas amounting to 276 deaths were registered in the Sao Paulo area (ibid.). While the police determined that drug trafficking and gang-related violence were the principle causes of these deaths, the Global Justice Centre cites impunity and the lack of state presence in the poorer peripheries of the city as primary causes (ibid.).

According to Time, in mid-2000, after a highly publized hostage-taking event in Rio de Janeiro in which the police mistakenly shot the hostage and subsequently smothered and killed the assailant on the way to jail, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso issued a six-month ban on the registry of new firearms and "unveiled a $1.6 billion package to fight violent crime and combat drug traffickers..." (3 July 2000). The package was reportedly critized by civil rights groups and the Global Justice Center stated that the biggest problem of all was "the near universal lack of confidence in Brazilian police" (ibid.). Reports on whether these programs had any impact on the prevalence of violent crime could not be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

More recent articles on crime in Brazil focus on the increasing number of kidnappings in Sao Paulo (The Economist 26 Jan. 2002; IPS 24 Jan. 2002; The New York Times 13 Feb. 2002; WPR May 2002). According to IPS, in Sao Paulo state, 307 cases of kidnapping were reported in 2001 which was more than four times the total number of kidnappings in 2000 (24 Jan. 2002). The Economist writes that "some criminal gangs have switched from bank raids, to specialize in kidnapping and car-jacking," and that Sao Paulo has experienced a "recent epidemic" of kidnappings (26 Jan. 2002). In response to a number of "audacious criminal stunts," President Cardoso was, again, reported to have promised "urgent measures to wage 'war on organized crime'," however, according to The Economist, gun-control measures and reforms to the "corruption-prone" judiciary remained "stuck in Congress" (ibid.).

In a "landmark ruling" against impunity, on 30 June 2001, Colonel Ubiratan Guimaraes was given a 632-year sentence for his role in the massacre of 111 inmates during a prison riot in 1992 (HRW 2002). According to HRW, Guimaraes is the "first military police officer of the rank of colonel or above to be criminally prosecuted in a civilian court" (ibid.). Despite the ruling, HRW reported that Guimaraes was freed after sentencing pending his appeal, and allowed to continue in his job as director of a private security firm (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Amnesty International (AI). 25 March 2002. "Brazil: Less Than Human-Life in Belo Horizonte Police Stations." [Accessed 22 Aug. 2002]

Brazzil [Los Angeles].

The Economist [London]. 26 January 2002. "Kidnapping an Election Agenda." (NEXIS)

Global Justice Centre [Rio de Janeiro]. 19 June 2001. "Massacre at Carandiru Prison." [Accessed 23 Aug. 2002]

_____. 2000. Human Rights in Brazil, 2000. <http://www.global.org.br/english/> [Accessed 23 Aug. 2002]

_____. 23 August 2000. "Destroying the Future: Physical Abuse and Torture in Juvenile Detention Centers in Sao Paulo." [Accessed 23 Aug. 2002]

Human Rights Watch (HRW). 2002. World Report 2002. [Accessed 22 Aug. 2002]

Inter Press Service (IPS). 24 January 2002. Mario Osava. "Politics-Brazil: Wave of Kidnappings Triggers Public Alarm." (NEXIS)

The New York Times. 13 February 2002. Simon Romero. "Sao Paulo Becomes the Kidnapping Capital of Brazil." (NEXIS)

Time Magazine. 3 July 2000. "Taking Aim at Crime." [Accessed 21 Aug. 2002]

The World Bank. January 2000. Leandro Piquet Carneiro. Violent Crime in Latin America Cities: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. [Accessed 20 Aug. 2002]

World Press Review (WPR). May 2002. "Brazil: Crime Spree." [Accessed 21 Aug. 2002]

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB Databases

LEXIS/NEXIS

World News Connection (WNC)

Internet sites including:

Inter-American Development Bank, Latin American Research Network

Political Resources on the Net

Transparency International

United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network

United Nations Economic and Social Council

United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Brazil Regional Office

UNESCO

Servico Brasileiro de Justica e Paz

U.S. Department of State