BRASILIA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- Homicide death rate among Brazilian youth aged 14-25 has rocketed by 326 percent over the past three decades, a report said Thursday.
The report released by the Brazilian Center for Latin American Studies is based on figures from the Health Ministry between 1980 and 2011.
During the period, violent deaths among the young, including homicides, traffic accidents and suicides, jumped 207.9 percent, with homicides being the main cause.
The areas with the highest incidence of violent deaths included states with the highest degree of industrial development, city outskirts, and border regions where sexual tourism thrives.
Other areas where criminal gangs, militias or drug traffickers operate, and the Amazon corridor blighted by deforestation also recorded a high incidence of violent deaths.
According to the report, the increase in the homicide rate was attributed to the lack of public social policies aimed at youth.
The Brazilian government has transformed the development model to stimulate economic growth since the 1990s but failed to improve governing systems, especially in the field of public security, the report said.
In addition, the outflow of wealth from the cities left impoverished inner-city and outlying regions unable to deal with increasing crimes, it said.
States and capitals with the highest homicide rates, such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, significantly cut their homicide rates through greater spending on public security, while poorer states do not have sufficient funds to strengthen public security.
Sao Paulo reduced its rate of homicides among youth by 86.3 percent over the past 15 years, but Natal, the capital of Rio Grande do Norte state, has seen an increase of 267.3 percent.
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