Mato Grosso city remains fourth in rate of violent deaths in the country

Davi Vittorazzi – From Cenarium

CUIABÁ (MT) – The municipality of Sorriso (420 kilometers from Cuiabá) is ranked as the fourth city in the country with the highest rate of Intentional Violent Deaths (IVD). The data comes from the Public Security Yearbook based on 2023, released on Thursday 18th.

According to the document, the list is made up of cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. The analysis by the researchers involved in the survey showed that faction disputes and deaths resulting from police intervention are the main explanations for the level of MVI in Brazil.

The 18th edition of the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook was produced by the Brazilian Public Security Forum. The survey shows that Santana in Amapá led the way as the most violent city last year, with a rate of 92.9. Previously, the municipality’s rate was 49.4.

Next up were the municipalities of Camaçari, which had an IVM rate of 90.6 per 100,000. In third place, Jequié had a rate of 84.4 per 100,000, with a total of 134 victims of intentional violent deaths. Of these deaths, 74 (55.2%) were the result of police interventions, i.e. more than half of the violent lethality in the city was the responsibility of the state itself.

Sorriso, in fourth place, had a total of 86 MVI in 2023 alone. The city was sixth in the 2022 ranking, but saw a 10.3% increase in the MVI rate last year, according to the survey. See the 10 most violent cities below:

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Sorriso is located in the north of Mato Grosso and has a population of 110,635 inhabitants, according to the 2022 Census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The municipality is the country’s largest grain producer, especially of corn and soybeans. The city has also been named one of the most violent in the country in a study by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea).

The study highlights that the increase in violent deaths in the country is associated with police action. “While the country has managed to reduce the total volume of records of intentional violent deaths, the participation of police lethality in the composition of such records has increased sharply”, the yearbook points out.

The researchers state that there is no public policy aimed at combating these deaths and that only policing is reinforced, which leads to more deaths. “The current form of confrontation ends up generating more deaths, especially of blacks, young people and by firearms, while organized crime has compromised various spheres of public life and the formal economy not affected by the action of ostentatious policing and special operations”, says an excerpt from the publication.

The Brazilian Public Security Yearbook is compiled from information provided by state governments, the National Treasury, the civil, military and federal police, among other official public security sources.

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Edited by Adrisa De Góes
Translated by Bruno Sena