The Future Enemies of Society

Brazil has made headlines worldwide as the B in BRIC. This South American sleeping giant is awake and its booming economy is removing millions from poverty. However, despite the great success of Brazil’s growing economy, its future might be treated by an escalation of urban violence that claims 43.3% of all deaths among children annually.

A recent survey shows that 79% of the Brazilian population is afraid of being murdered. This fear, that is constant in all regions of Brazil, is reflected on the media coverage. The cycle of violence that increases every day, particularly among the youth, is splashed constantly on the Radio, TV, printed and online publications. The statistics back up this fear as the trends show that since the 80’s the violence against children and teenagers, aged 1 to 19 years old, increased dramatically, from 6.7% in 1980 to 25% in 2010. This means that, while in 1980 3.1 children were killed for every 100 thousand, in 2010 this number soared to 13.8 in 2010 which represents an increase of 346% in the last three decades According to a study made by the World Health Organization, these alarming figures put Brazil in fourth place in the list of the most violent countries against children, only behind El Salvador, Guatemala and Iraq.

In reaction to this surge in criminality the Brazilian Government tightened the security in the biggest cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which helped to decrease drastically the violence in such places but also collaborated to push the violence to the countryside or other great centers. In consequence, states such as Bahia and Rio Grande do Norte had the murder rate among the children and teenagers increased by 7 fold and 5 fold, respectively.

While Brazil made progress in decreasing the mortality rate for children under 5 y-o due to improvements in health, sanitation and social benefits, the same cannot be said to the external factors such as violent crimes that claim fatalities among teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19 y-o. Is also interesting to mention that boys are the most affected as girls make only 10% of the fatal victims.

The most surprising conclusion we can draw from these figures is that Brazil lives an epidemic of indifference and almost complicity by a huge segment of the society and also by the State. Instead of raising awareness for this calamity, the Brazilian society and State believe that the sad fate of the youth is already decided and nothing can be done to change it.

In order to understand the acceptance by the Brazilian society for this cold rationalization, is important to note that the public opinion, in its majority, blames the victims of the violent crimes for their own misfortune. If a teenaged criminal is killed by the police or by another delinquent this is seen as a disciplinary action. This nearly vigilante approach is well received by the large segments of population simply because the security policies are unable to shift the violent crime waves that engulfed Brazil in recent decades.

It seems the economic success experienced in Brazil recently will not contribute, in short term, to the decline in the rate of violence that claims so many lives among the youth. Profound changes in Law, security policies and society will play a big role in reversing these deadly numbers.