Violent Crime Drops by 57 Percent in the State of São Paulo

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – Violent crime decreased in 79 of the 139 municipalities in São Paulo (57 percent), according to the Index of Exposure to Violent Crime (IECV), an evaluation conducted by Instituto Sou da Paz based on indicators from the São Paulo State Public Security Secretariat.

The study considers cities with a population greater than 50 thousand inhabitants.

According to the most recent study for 2018 and now published exclusively by the newspaper Estado, São Paulo has a new, more violent municipality: Itanhaém, in the Baixada Santista, which does not recognize itself at such risk.

The city where the risk of experiencing a criminal offense is considered lower is Vinhedo, near Campinas, where the Municipal Guard is an asset in the fight against crime.

Separating the most violent city from the least violent in the state are 25 homicides, 732 robberies, and 52 rapes.

The general decrease in the State index last year can be attributed to a continued drop in the rate of homicides as well as a reduction in the number of total robberies, which includes robberies of pedestrians, homes, and businesses.

In contrast to this drop is the rise in rape records, which at the end of the year had monthly declines, but closed the year with a total increase.

Researcher Ana Carolina Pekny recalls that police action is not always uniform throughout the state, although there are protocols to govern this action.

In addition, she said there are also issues specific to each municipality, such as those concerning prevention, implementation of social policies and socioeconomic factors. “Security in the city doesn’t exclusively concern the police,” she said.

The IECV is estimated from the pondered average of three sub-indexes: lethal crimes (homicide and armed robbery), crimes against sexual dignity (rape) and crimes against property (theft, vehicle theft, and cargo theft).