Quote:
Originally Posted by FCZ
First of all, let me say that I’m sorry to hear that you were mugged. If I had to single out one negative aspect of our visit to RN and CE, it would be the security systems around houses. In the South someone has to look hard to find a beach house with anything besides a wall; things we saw in the NE are illegal, for instance, broken glasses on top of a wall. The kite instructor told me that it makes look worst than it really is; I don’t know about that, but statistics are showing decreasing in violence in Brazil, though still high ( Brazil | Not as violent as you thought | Economist.com ); a similar article was published by the Financial Times a couple of months ago. Recently a Law to legalize abortion was rejected after a strong lobby from religious groups, in particular, evangelics. The law was partially inspired by the arguments put forward by a Univ. of Chicago economist who states that the main (but not the only) cause of violence reduction in the US was the legalization of abortion a generation ago instead of popular explanations like growth, more police, zero tolerance, and so on. The RJ Governor was citing this study. I’m aware of the sensitiveness of the subject, anyone offended, please refer to the book (“Freakonomics” by Steven Levitt) not me.
Salvador: to be fair, the most violent big city in Brazil is supposed to be Recife, not Salvador, RJ or SP. Anyway, I have friends with beach houses near Recife and Salvador, and they are quite happy. But it seems things haven’t change in terms of harassing tourists there, it was the same way 10 years ago. In Natal and Cumbuco I found the beach sellers quite different, they usually kept certain distance from the tourists, and if they ask if you want something, they don’t insist at all; besides, they were selling things that, eventually, could be handy (hats, sunscreens, coconut water,…). I chatted a bit with the guy that was doing a temporary tattoo in my daughter, a quite cool person with a very good sense of humor, I’m glad he was there. |
Thanks for the support... interesting article you mention, as are your comments.
I did see some figures a while back about the most violent cities in Brazil, but, as always, statistics can be massaged and presented in many lights (refer to lies, damned lies & statistics...).
As I recall, the least violent was Natal and the most violent was Recife. But this only referred to the murder rate in State Capitals. The actual city with the lowest murder rate was Maringa, Parana and the worst was Serra, Espirito de Santo. But again murders tend to be associated with other factors, and geographically grouped in a city rather than provide a true reflection of any city as a whole.
Plus this data was put together, I think, in 2003. Given that the article you quote states the murder rate in Sao Paulo itself has dropped 50% in the past few years it would be interesting to see more recent figures.
And Rob makes a good point about the reorganisation of the police department in Fortaleza producing a reduction in crime there recently. Anyone got any recent figures?