Youth in danger
UNICEF has identified increasing inequality, access to firearms, high drug use, and the growth of the young population as the main reasons for the high number of youth homicides in Brazil.
A recent report from the United Nations Children's Fund – UNICEF – placed Brazil in the uncomfortable sixth position in the world in the homicide rate of children and adolescents aged zero to 19 years in 2012.
The document states that the country recorded 17 homicides per 100 inhabitants in that age group. With this, Brazil was behind only El Salvador (27 per 100), Guatemala (22), Venezuela (20), Haiti (19), and Lesotho (18).
In absolute terms, the report says that Brazil recorded more than 11 deaths in that age group, second only to Nigeria, with almost 13 crimes of this nature during the same period.
UNICEF has identified increasing inequality, access to firearms, high drug use, and the growth of the young population as the main reasons for the high number of youth homicides in Brazil.
The fund also used a 2010 database to claim that in Brazil, black teenagers are three times more likely to be murdered than white youths.
The number of men in this age group who were victims of homicide is also 12 times greater than the number of women.
More than 95 children and adolescents were murdered worldwide during the period covered by the report. This number represents one-fifth of all murders of children and adolescents on the planet, the majority of which occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Since I had the honor of serving as Minister of Justice, I have been bringing to the country the need to reconsider the trivialization of the use of firearms. I proposed a popular referendum where society voted in favor of continuing the sale of weapons and ammunition. I believe we must continue to tighten legislation to make access to weapons more difficult.
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.