An advantage of lockdown? In February, São Paulo had its fewest monthly homicides since 2001

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Figures fell from 61 victims last year to 34 murders last month, the lowest number of all months in the historical series, which began in 2001.

In February of that year, the city of São Paulo registered 471 homicides -or 1,285% more than the number registered this year, according to data released by the São Paulo government. The historic drop in intentional deaths in the capital was not enough to prevent a new increase in this type of crime in the state, which grew by 9.6 – from 218 to 239 victims.

The main reason was an increase in this type of crime in the interior, of 38%, compared to the same period last year. They rose from 108 to 139 crime victims.

In January this year, the growth in the state had also been pulled by the interior (20%). Now, however, it is helped by Greater São Paulo, which also registered an increase of 14%, compared to the same period of 2020. The increase, in absolute numbers, was from 49 to 56 victims.

For the executive secretary of the Military Police, Álvaro Camilo, the reduction of murders in the capital is linked to the significant increase in the number of police working in the streets, including dispersal of people, and also the fight against drug trafficking that help in the reduction of murders.

“In the interior you don’t have homicide as occurs here, because you don’t have as many communities as you have in the capital. It happens a lot in the peripheral areas. Remembering that the crimes against property happen in the central, more affluent areas, and the crime against people, in the more distant neighborhoods, or dormitories, in the more densely populated neighborhoods,” says the secretary.

Also according to Camilo, differently from the capital, murder crimes outside the city are not linked to drug and alcohol consumption, as in the capital.

“Homicides there [in the countryside] are not very much linked to this disturbed environment, to the urban agglomeration, a homicide there is more of a fight, people cutting each other with knives, or even guns, but not because of a slum or community. That’s why the police presence here interfered a lot in this issue.”

In addition to intentional homicides, there has also been an increase in the number of rape crimes, especially of the vulnerable -such as children. The increase in crimes against the most fragile people was 15.4%: they went from 643 to 742. In total, they went from 885 to 983 (an increase of 11%).

Property crimes followed the downward trend, with the exception of cargo robberies, which rose 0.7%. They went from 519 to 523 – or four more cases, always comparing February 2020 with last month.