Social segregation and lethal police violence in the city of São Paulo, Brazil (2014-2015)

Segregação social e a violência policial letal na cidade de São Paulo, Brasil (2014-2015)

Abstract

We aimed to investigate how lethal police violence (LPV) in the City of São Paulo (CSP), Brazil, is associated with socioeconomic development when we consider the victims’ place of residence and the locations of the fatal injuries. The spatial distribution of lethal police violence rate (LPVR) and its association with the human development index (HDI) was investigated using the Moran’s I (Global and Bivariate Local). Between 2014 and 2015 we found 403 police victims in the Health database and 794 victims in the Security Department. We found a non-random spatial distribution of the LPV considering the victim’s place of residence (I=+0.12; p<0.001) and the locations where the fatal injuries were inflicted (I=+0.07; p<0.001). We found a negative association between LPVR and the HDI of the place of residence (I=-0.10; p<0.001) and a positive association between LPVR and the HDI of the locations of the fatal injuries (I=+0.02; p<0.001). The results point to different dynamics of LPV in CSP. High mortality clusters are found in areas with lower HDI, when considering the victim’s address, and in areas with higher HDI, when considering the address of the violent events. LPV impacts young blacks, poorly educated residents of outskirts informing us about patterns of social segregation.

Key words:
Legal intervention; Police; Spatial Analysis; Social segregation