Imagine a nation where over 40,000 lives are lost to murder each year, yet behind that staggering headline lies a complex and uneven landscape of violence, where safety can depend on which street corner or state you call home.
Key Takeaways
- Brazil's homicide rate was 22.4 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019
- In 2022, Brazil recorded 40,824 murders
- Rio de Janeiro had a homicide rate of 35.6 per 100,000 in 2021
- Robbery rate in Brazil: 1,200 per 100,000 in 2022
- São Paulo robberies: 150,000 cases in 2022
- Vehicle thefts in Brazil: 400,000 annually
- Brazil drug seizure value: $1.2B in 2022
- Cocaine production routes through Brazil: 70% of EU supply
- PCC controls 60% of São Paulo prisons
- Lava Jato operation recovered $5B
- Brazil corruption perception index: 38/100 in 2022
- Odebrecht bribes: $800M in 12 countries
- Police killings in Brazil: 6,345 in 2022
- Prison population: 850,000 inmates in 2023
- Overcrowding rate: 170% in Brazilian prisons
Brazil continues to face a severe crime crisis, with persistently high homicide and violence rates nationwide.
Corruption Statistics
- Lava Jato operation recovered $5B
- Brazil corruption perception index: 38/100 in 2022
- Odebrecht bribes: $800M in 12 countries
- Petrobras scandal embezzlement: $2B
- 50% of Brazilians believe corruption worsening
- Public procurement corruption: 20% overprice
- Politicians indicted for corruption: 200 since 2014
- Brazil lost $100B to corruption yearly pre-Lava Jato
- Electoral corruption fines: R$1B in 2022
- Health ministry corruption: R$2B diverted COVID funds
- Embraer bribery scandal: $107M penalty
- Tax evasion corruption: R$500B annual loss
- Local government corruption cases: 1,000 yearly
- JBS meatpackers bribery: $190M plea
- 70% of infrastructure projects delayed by corruption
- Supreme Court corruption probes: 50 active
- Rio Olympics corruption: $500M embezzled
- Pension fund corruption: R$10B lost
- Money laundering from corruption: $40B yearly
- 40 governors investigated for corruption 2010-2020
- Education procurement fraud: 30% of contracts
- Brazil ranks 94th in CPI globally
- Postalis pension corruption: R$8B loss
- Vaccine corruption scandal 2021: R$1B kickbacks
Corruption Statistics Interpretation
The Lava Jato operation may have pulled a $5 billion thorn from Brazil's side, but the festering wound of corruption still bleeds out billions more each year, proving the patient is far from cured.
Drug-Related Crime Statistics
- Brazil drug seizure value: $1.2B in 2022
- Cocaine production routes through Brazil: 70% of EU supply
- PCC controls 60% of São Paulo prisons
- Marijuana seizures: 500 tons in 2022
- Drug trafficking arrests: 40,000 yearly
- Brazil cocaine transit: 80 tons seized 2021
- Favelas drug sales revenue: $5B annually in Rio
- CV vs PCC war caused 10,000 deaths 2010-2020
- Synthetic drugs seizures up 300% 2022
- Ports like Santos handle 40% of drug exports
- Youth drug trafficking involvement: 20%
- Brazil opioid crisis emerging, 5,000 deaths 2022
- Amazon drug route seizures: 100 tons cocaine 2022
- PCC international operations in 20 countries
- Drug labs dismantled: 500 in 2022
- Crack cocaine users: 700,000 in Brazil
- Border drug trafficking: 60% via Paraguay
- Rio drug faction revenue: $1B yearly
- Ecstasy seizures: 10 tons 2022
- Drug-related homicides: 30% of total
- Women in drug trafficking: 15% of arrests
- Northeast drug mules: 5,000 arrested yearly
- Submarine drug shipments to Brazil rising
- Drug addiction treatment demand up 50%
- PCC membership: 30,000 inmates
Drug-Related Crime Statistics Interpretation
Brazil has become the global wholesale warehouse for cocaine, a nation where cartels rival the state, prisons are franchised headquarters, and the staggering human cost is measured not just in billions of dollars seized, but in tens of thousands of lives lost and futures consumed by a system that profits from its own destruction.
Homicide Statistics
- Brazil's homicide rate was 22.4 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2019
- In 2022, Brazil recorded 40,824 murders
- Rio de Janeiro had a homicide rate of 35.6 per 100,000 in 2021
- São Paulo state's homicide rate dropped to 6.8 per 100,000 in 2022
- Brazil saw 47,508 violent deaths in 2019
- Femininicide cases in Brazil reached 1,419 in 2021
- Homicides in Bahia state: 5,913 in 2022
- Brazil's youth homicide rate (15-29 years) is 48.1 per 100,000
- Ceará recorded 3,559 homicides in 2020
- National homicide rate fell 3.4% from 2021 to 2022
- 68% of homicides in Brazil solved in 2022
- Rio favelas saw 1,292 homicides in 2022
- Homicide rate in Manaus: 41 per 100,000 in 2021
- Brazil's firearm homicide rate: 20.8 per 100,000 in 2019
- Pernambuco homicides: 2,464 in 2022
- Homicide rate in Fortaleza: 50.2 per 100,000 in 2020
- Brazil ranked 7th globally for homicides in 2021
- 80% of homicides in Brazil are male victims
- Homicides dropped 22% in Brazil from 2017-2022
- Alagoas homicide rate: 38.5 per 100,000 in 2021
- Recife homicides: 402 in 2022
- Brazil's homicide rate among highest in Latin America at 21.9 per 100k in 2020
- 1,300 police killed in Brazil 2013-2022
- Homicides in Salvador: 660 in 2022
- Youth homicides represent 35% of total in Brazil
- Homicide rate in Belém: 45 per 100,000 in 2021
- Brazil recorded 43,000 homicides in 2020
- Firearm deaths: 42,000 in Brazil 2021
- Homicide rate in Natal: 55 per 100,000 in 2020
- National average solved homicide rate: 10-20%
Homicide Statistics Interpretation
Despite notable progress nationally, Brazil's homicide crisis persists as a deeply unequal geographic lottery where your survival odds can swing wildly from São Paulo's relative peace to the slaughterhouse statistics of its northern and northeastern states.
Police and Prison Statistics
- Police killings in Brazil: 6,345 in 2022
- Prison population: 850,000 inmates in 2023
- Overcrowding rate: 170% in Brazilian prisons
- Rio police lethality: 1,300 deaths in 2022
- Black people 75% of police killing victims
- Police impunity rate: 90% for killings
- Female prison population growth: 500% since 2000
- Bail rate for homicide suspects: 20%
- São Paulo police operations: 10,000 yearly
- Pretrial detention: 30% of prison population
- Police corruption complaints: 5,000 yearly
- Massacres in prisons: 60 deaths in 2017 Amazonas
- Bail hearings granted: 70% in Rio
- Police budget: R$50B annually
- Recidivism rate: 70% in Brazil
- Torture complaints in custody: 2,000 yearly
- Federal police arrests: 50,000 in 2022
- Prison violence deaths: 4,000 since 2019
- Community policing coverage: 10% of favelas
- Juvenile detention centers: 20,000 youth
- Police self-investigation rate: 95%
- Prison health spending: 20% of budget inadequate
- Militarized police reform rejected
Police and Prison Statistics Interpretation
Brazil's criminal justice system appears to be a grim, self-perpetuating industry where the state spends billions to efficiently recycle its citizens, especially Black citizens, from the streets to the morgue or from the streets to a cell and back again, with near-total impunity as the operating manual.
Robbery and Theft Statistics
- Robbery rate in Brazil: 1,200 per 100,000 in 2022
- São Paulo robberies: 150,000 cases in 2022
- Vehicle thefts in Brazil: 400,000 annually
- Rio de Janeiro street robberies up 20% in 2023
- Brazil burglary rate: 800 per 100,000
- Phone thefts: 1 million cases per year in Brazil
- Bank robberies in Brazil: 50 in 2022
- Theft rate in Fortaleza: 2,500 per 100,000
- Brazil's pickpocketing index high at 65.2/100
- Carjacking incidents: 15,000 in 2021
- Home invasions in Rio: 10,000 in 2022
- Shoplifting cases nationwide: 200,000 yearly
- Robbery victimization rate: 8% in Brazil
- São Paulo thefts: 300,000 in 2022
- Brazil ranks high in global theft perception
- Motorcycle thefts: 100,000 per year
- Robberies with violence: 60% of total
- Bag snatching common in tourist areas, rate 70/100
- Brazil commercial robbery rate: 50 per 100,000 businesses
- Theft in Bahia: 120,000 cases 2022
- 40% increase in express kidnappings 2022
- Property crime cost Brazil $10B yearly
- Rio metro thefts: 5,000 incidents 2022
- Brazil shop theft up 25% post-pandemic
- Vehicle recovery rate: 60% in Brazil
- Street crime victimization: 12% in urban Brazil
- Porto Alegre robberies: 20,000 in 2022
Robbery and Theft Statistics Interpretation
While these numbers might be interpreted as a booming shadow economy of redistribution, they more accurately reflect a profound societal crisis where the routine theft of property and sense of security has become one of Brazil’s most distressingly democratic experiences.
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