Profile of Rio de Janeiro’s violent lethality perpetrators, Brazil (2015)

Abstract

This study presents the profile of the perpetrators of deaths caused by intentional ag-gressions in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2015, as per data from the State Civil Police (PCERJ) inves-tigations. This is a quantitative, descriptive, and cross-sectional study. The information encompas-ses “premeditated murder”, “larceny”, “bodily in-jury followed by death” and “homicide caused by resisting police intervention”. The study analyzes the profile of the authors of each category, except homicides committed by police intervention. The crimes committed by police intervention were ex-cluded from the total number of the 1,562 identified deaths. Only about 20% of the perpetrators of the 1,255 crimes investigated were identified. The data recognized show the relevance of drug traffickers and militiamen illegal activities in the deaths and interpersonal violence in domestic and community spaces and neighborhoods. A re-markable similarity is observed between the profile of violent lethality perpetrators and victims in the studied urban contexts: men, young people, and young adults aged 19-39 years, blacks, with low schooling, high levels of unemployment, and informal occupations.