São Paulo, June 25, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - Spending on crime currently make up almost 5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), in three of Brazil's major cities - Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and São Paulo - including the resources spent for the treatment of victims and for the prevention of violence. This quantity also includes indirect expenditures, related to what isn't produced as a result of the existence of crime.
A study carried out by the Ministry of Justice's National Secretariat of Public Safety (Senasp) and presented on Tuesday (24) by Minister Márcio Thomaz Bastos at the seminar on Public Safety, in the Chamber of Deputies, shows that, in 1999, crime cost the municipality of São Paulo R$ 9.4 billion. In Belo Horizonte, R$ 900 million were spent the same year as a result of crime, and, in 1995, the cost of violence in Rio de Janeiro amounted to R$ 2.5 billion.
The diagnosis of crime presented by Minister Bastos also revealed that, between 1980 and 1985, the homicide rate doubled in Brazil, from 11 to 23 cases for every 100 thousand individuals in the population. In comparison with other countries, the homicide rate in Brazil is only surpassed by that of Colombia, South Africa, Jamaica, and Venezuela. The Minister stressed that this increase in the Brazilian index does not apply all over the country; in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Espírito Santo, the situation is more drastic.
The study presents another troubling bit of information, showing the territorial concentration of crime in heavily populated cities: Half of the cases registered in Brazil occurred in only 27 municipalities, less than 1% of the municipálities in Brazil. In the majority of cases, the victim is of the male sex, between 17 and 23 years of age.
As far as the use of arms goes, the Senasp data are also alarming. In 1998, of the total of 41,838 homicides registered in the country, 25,603, 61.2% of the total, were caused by firearms. "This is a crucial and essential theme that has to be discussed and resolved in Brazil," Bastos observed, adding that the increase in the use of firearms in the last few years has also been verified in other types of crime, such as robbery, which is mainly concentrated in the South, where "the socio-economic situation of the population is significantly better than in the states in the north of the country."
With respect to the social costs of violence, the Minister underscored the reduction of intensity in social relations and the quality of life, together with the population's sense of insecurity. "Things like not going to certain places, avoiding the use of certain clothes, not going out at night, and spending substantial sums of money on private security devices are indicators of this phenomenon," Bastos pointed out, associating these behaviors with the acquisition of firearms for the sake of protection. (DAS)
