Deaths from homicides: a historical series.

Flávia Azevedo De Mattos Moura Costa,Claudia Benedita Dos Santos,Ruth França Cizino Da Trindade

doi:10.1590/0104-1169.3603.2511

Flávia Azevedo De Mattos Moura Costa, Claudia Benedita Dos Santos + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/0104-1169.3603.2511

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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: to describe mortality from homicides in Itabuna, in the State of Bahia. METHOD: study with hybrid, ecological and time-trend design. The mortality coefficients per 1,000 inhabitants, adjusted by the direct technique, proportional mortality by sex and age range, and Potential Years of Life Lost were all calculated. RESULTS: since 2005, the external causes have moved from third to second most-common cause of death, with homicides being responsible for the increase. In the 13 years analyzed, homicides have risen 203%, with 94% of these deaths occurring among the male population. Within this group, the growth occurred mainly in the age range from 15 to 29 years of age. It was ascertained that 83% of the deaths were caused by firearms; 57.2% occurred in public thoroughfares; and 98.4% in the urban zone. In 2012, the 173 homicides resulted in 7,837 potential years of life lost, with each death causing, on average, the loss of 45.3 years. CONCLUSIONS: mortality by homicide in a medium-sized city in Bahia reaches levels observed in the big cities of Brazil in the 1980s, evidencing that the phenomenon of criminality - formerly predominant only in the big urban centers - is advancing into the rural area of Brazil, causing changes in the map of violent homicide in Brazil.

Highlights

Characterized as a phenomenon with complex and multifactorial causality, one can define violence as actions undertaken by one or more individuals and which cause physical or psychological harm to oneself or to others(1)
It is the principal cause of death in the age group between 15 and 44 years old, subverting the pattern present in first world countries, which is that deaths occur at the more advanced ages, being the main cause of potential years of life lost in this population(1-3)
In the period studied, the lowest coefficient of deaths from external causes was of 0.88/1,000 inhabitants in 2000, and the highest was 1.39/1,000 inhabitants in 2010, which represents a growth of approximately 37% of deaths from this set of causes

Summary

Introduction

Characterized as a phenomenon with complex and multifactorial causality, one can define violence as actions undertaken by one or more individuals and which cause physical or psychological harm to oneself or to others(1) In this regard, it is deeply rooted in the social, economic and political structures, representing a risk for the process of human development, with potential threats to life and to health and the consequent possibility of death(2). Attention is drawn to mortality from homicides, fundamentally, because, in addition to occurring in large numbers, it mainly affects a young population It is the principal cause of death in the age group between 15 and 44 years old, subverting the pattern present in first world countries, which is that deaths occur at the more advanced ages, being the main cause of potential years of life lost in this population(1-3). Besides the public safety institutions’ difficulties in containing the process of the spread of violence into the interior of the country, urban degradation has contributed decisively to it, as poverty, social inequality, and poor access among the population to goods and basic services are problems which are no longer exclusive to the big cities(1)

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