Brazil: 35,000 children and adolescents murdered in 5 years; figure for up to 4-year-olds rises 27% in 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Between 2016 and 2020, 35,000 children and adolescents were murdered in Brazil, an average of 7,000 per year, according to an unprecedented study by the Brazilian Forum for Public Safety and UNICEF released on Friday, October 22. The figure for children up to 4 years old increased 27% in 2020.

The United States, with a larger population than Brazil, reports approximately 3,000 child and adolescent deaths per year. “Latin America has 8% of the world’s population and nearly half of all child homicides, most of which are committed in Brazil. The levels of violence are very alarming,” says UNICEF’s Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in Brazil Danilo Moura.

The Panorama of Lethal and Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents conducted an unprecedented analysis of police reports from 27 states, the first with a historical series and, therefore, comparative between years. Intentional violent deaths or murders include the following crimes: intentional homicide, feminicide, robbery, bodily injury followed by death, and death resulting from police intervention (on or off duty).

Over 31,000 victims were aged between 15 and 19. UNICEF works with age ranges used by international bodies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), which include the age of 19 to cover legislation in various countries. In the same period, 1,070 children up to 9 years of age were murdered, 213 in 2020 alone, 1 every 2 days.

The study draws attention to the different characteristics of deaths of children, victims of domestic violence, and adolescents, victims of urban violence.

“They are two different phenomena, children up to 9 years old die victims of domestic violence. Children and adolescents from 10 to 19 are victims of urban violence, which is related to events that occur especially in cities and with a higher percentage of deaths resulting from police intervention,” explains the panorama’s editorial coordinator Sofia Reinach.

Up to the age of 9, 40% of children were killed inside their homes; 56% were black and 33% were girls.

Black boys were the majority of victims in all age groups, although as age advances, this group’s prevalence intensifies, reaching 4 out of 5 victims aged 15 to 19: 90% were boys and 80% were black.

Ceará was the state with the highest rate of intentional violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2020: 46.97. Violence in the state last year was widespread. Ceará experienced the largest increase in deaths from one year to the next (76%) and the highest rate per 100,000 inhabitants (45.2).

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Between 2016 and 2020, in the 18 states for which the study has complete data for the historical series, the number of violent deaths of children between the ages of 0 and 4 increased 27% – from 112 to 142, while the number of victims in the other age groups fell.

In nearly 90% of cases of violent deaths of children aged 0-4, the perpetrator is someone known to the victim. “In 2020, social isolation measures affected children more, as they were out of school. So children were more exposed to the perpetrator, more exposed to domestic violence. We cannot ignore that,” said Sofia Reinach.

This increase in violence was mainly caused by the rise in firearm-related deaths in this age group, according to the study. Brazil has doubled the number of guns in the hands of civilians in just three years, according to data from the Brazilian Public Safety Yearbook released in July.

According to the Federal Police, in 2017 the National Arms System (Sinarm) counted 637,972 active gun registrations. By the end of 2020, the figure rose to 1,279,491 – an increase of over 100%.

In June 2020, a boy died after being shot during his 4th birthday party in Piabetá, in Baixada Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro. Enzo, 4 years old, was shot in the chest during the celebration. The perpetrator, who was attending the event, was caught in the act.

“My son was turning 4 years old, happy with his Hulk party. He had been asking for a month: is my party tomorrow?” said the father in a recorded audio. Little Enzo listened to the guests singing Happy Birthday, but soon after the boy was killed with a revolver shot in front of everyone, including the children.

ABOUT THE STUDY

The Panorama of Lethal and Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents in Brazil gathers unprecedented data on the occurrence records of lethal violence and sexual violence against children and adolescents up to 19 years old.

The state police reports are collected in the Brazilian Yearbook of Public Safety, produced by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety (FBSP).

Through the Access to Information Law, the Forum requested from each of the Brazilian states the numbers regarding intentional violent deaths, rape and abuse of vulnerable persons, in order to extract specific indexes from the occurrence reports registered in the past 5 years.