The Effect of Absolute and Relative Deprivation on Homicides in Brazil

Date01 November 2021
Published date01 November 2021
DOI10.1177/1088767921989068
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/1088767921989068
Homicide Studies
2021, Vol. 25(4) 361 –386
© 2021 SAGE Publications
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DOI: 10.1177/1088767921989068
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Article
The Effect of Absolute
and Relative Deprivation
on Homicides in Brazil
Temidayo James Aransiola1,
Vania Ceccato1, and Marcelo Justus2
Abstract
This paper investigates the effect of absolute deprivation (proxy unemployment)
and relative deprivation (proxy income inequality) on homicide levels in Brazil. A
database from the Brazilian Information System about Mortality and Census of the
year 2000 and 2010 was used to estimate negative binomial models of homicide
levels controlling for socioeconomic, demographic, and geographic factors. Findings
show that unemployment and income inequality affect homicides levels and that the
effect of the former is more pronounced compared to the latter. Moreover, the
combination of income inequality and unemployment exacerbates the overall effect
of deprivation on homicide levels.
Keywords
violence, deprivation, unemployment, inequality, interaction
Introduction
Brazil has one of the highest rates of lethal violence in the world. The rate of homicide
is remarkably high and has been steadily increasing over time in the last few years. In
the year 2017, homicide is the cause of about 46.6% of the death of individuals
between age 15 and 29 in Brazil, being significantly higher among the male population
(about 53.3%). In that year alone, this represents 65.602 homicides caused by aggres-
sion and legal interventions in Brazil, giving a rate of 31.6 for every one hundred
1KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
2University of Campinas, Institute of Economics, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Corresponding Author:
Temidayo James Aransiola, Department of Urban Planning and Built Environment, KTH Royal Institute of
Technology, Rua Pitágoras, 353, Cidade Universitária, Campinas, São Paulo 13083-872, Sweden.
Email: tjara@kth.se
989068HSXXXX10.1177/1088767921989068Homicide StudiesAransiola et al.
research-article2021
362 Homicide Studies 25(4)
thousand population, which is three times the world average (IPEA-FBSP, 2018,
2019). This position of Brazil in the global chart of violent deaths makes the country a
relevant case not only of the so-called Global South1 but also for the international lit-
erature on the topic.
Homicides are heterogeneously distributed across Brazilian municipalities and this
distribution correlates with that of some socio-economic structures such as deprivation
and inequality in terms of poverty, employment opportunities, and health facilities,
especially in metropolitan areas. The regional concentration of homicide rate is also
linked to other criminal activities such as drugs and firearm production and traffic
(IPEA-FBSP, 2019). This study centers on the association of social and economic
deprivation with the homicide rate of municipalities controlling for demographic, geo-
graphic and other socioeconomic factors.
The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of absolute deprivation
(proxy unemployment) and relative deprivation (proxy income inequality) on
homicide levels. Moreover, the potential interaction between unemployment and
income inequality is tested to verify how homicide levels react to distinct combina-
tions of the magnitudes of these deprivation measures. The analysis of such interac-
tion is important because it enables to answer critical questions such as, how does
homicide levels respond to low unemployment under the conditions of high income
inequality, or vice-versa.
Criminological literature has long indicated that deprivation and inequality are sig-
nificant causes of violent crimes (Blau & Blau, 1982; Ceccato, 2014; Messner et al.,
2002). However, there is a long-established debate regarding the role of economic
deprivation on homicide, especially when specified as absolute deprivation (the ability
of individuals to meet their subsistence needs) and relative deprivation (the social
position of individuals compared to their social group) (Pridemore, 2011).
This study builds on the previous international literature but in particular the study
by Burraston et al. (2018) that tested the interaction effect of income inequality and
disadvantage on homicide levels using data from United State counties. These authors
used income inequality as a proxy measure for relative deprivation and a disadvantage
indicator that combines poverty, unemployment, level of education and family struc-
ture and income, as a proxy measure for absolute deprivation.
This present study contributes to this literature with novel perspectives. Unlike in
most previous studies, unemployment is used as a measure of absolute deprivation
instead of poverty, whereas income inequality is used as a measure of relative depriva-
tion. This is because poverty is, by construct, confounded in the lower tail of the dis-
tribution of income inequality measures (Pridemore, 2011) and unemployment is a
state which does not relate one person to another, hence absolute. Moreover, unem-
ployment better characterizes the temporary lack of the means of individuals to change
their deprivation situation, which may emphasize the feeling of frustration and, conse-
quently, may trigger violence (Merton, 1938).
The international literature on this topic is overrepresented by evidence from the
North American and European countries, whereas examples from countries of the
Global South are underrepresented. Therefore, providing evidence on Brazil is

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