Paving the Hills and Leveling the Streets

Many of Brazil's cities rank amongst the most violent in the world. A considerable proportion of the country's annually reported 50,000 murders occur on the streets of São Paulo, Recife and Rio de Janeiro. ¹ But Brazil is not alone in being afflicted by chronic urban violence: the country is located in what might be called a “bad neighborhood”. With just over 8 percent of the world's population, Latin American and Caribbean populations experience more than 27 percent of all global homicides. With almost 20 murders per 100,000 people, the regional homicide rate is roughly three times the global average. ² The region's cities in particular are plagued by an epidemic of urban violence. ³ Indeed, many of its major urban centers — from Caracas and Ciudad Juarez to Kingston and Port-of-Spain — register the highest rates of lethal violence in the world.