Brazil violent deaths hit 14-year low as femicides and police killings rise

Brazil recorded its lowest rate of intentional violent deaths in 14 years in 2025, but the decline was accompanied by record levels of femicides and deaths caused by police actions, the Brazilian Forum on Public Security said in its annual crime report.

The watchdog, which uses official data, said 40,775 people suffered intentional violent deaths last year in a country of around 213 million people. The category includes homicides and deaths resulting from police interventions. The total represented the lowest rate since the NGO began tracking the data in 2012.

Nearly 80 percent of the victims were Black. Brazil's 2022 census found that around 55 percent of Brazilians are Black or mixed race.

The report said Brazil reached its 2027 target for reducing intentional homicides two years early. But the NGO said this progress was tempered by a record number of deaths caused by police since it began tracking that measure in 2016.

Police interventions accounted for one in six intentional violent deaths, which the NGO described as a sign that the state had become part of the problem as well as part of the response.

Femicides rose four percent from the previous year and reached the highest level since the watchdog began tracking killings of women because of their gender in 2015.

Security is a major concern ahead of Brazil's presidential election in three months, in which President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking a fourth term. His main rival in the October vote is senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

Flavio Bolsonaro has made security a central campaign issue in a country where organized crime groups control areas where millions of people live in poor neighborhoods. He supported the United States' June decision to designate Brazil's two largest criminal groups, Comando Vermelho, or Red Command, and First Capital Command, known as PCC, as terror organizations. Lula's government opposed the measure, saying it could open the door to foreign interference and complicate Brazil's security strategy.