Murder is characterized as death by assault, regardless of its definition as a crime. A multicenter study of mortality due to murder in Latin America showed that from 1990 to 2007, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico accounted for 1,432,971 deaths due to murder. The same study points out that the highest murder rates are found in the group of male teenagers and young men. Based on these data, Fiocruz is conducting the research "Violent deaths of young people: a comprehensive look at a human and social tragedy", supported by Fiotec.

"The idea is to conduct a social and epidemiological study in mortality from murder among young people, because this is the main cause of their death, this issue is very important", said Edinilsa Ramos, coordinator of the project.

Epidemiological x quantitative

The coordinator explained that the study has been conducted in two parts. From an epidemiological point of view, a descriptive analysis is made of the mortality of young people (15-29 years) due to murder, involving the basic data such as gender, age and means used to commit the murder, available in the information systems of the Ministries of Health of Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela for the period 1980-2010.

From a qualitative point of view, ten case studies were made, two in each major region of the country, a municipality high and increasing rate of murder of young people and one with low and declining rate, even with improved information quality. In each municipality, ​​four semi-structured interviews were made with managers, three focus groups with professionals, two focus groups with young people and an interview with a family of some murdered youth.

In total 100 interviews/groups were conducted. "In addition, we collected the widely read newspapers for the month of March 2013, whose news on the topic will also be reviewed. This qualitative approach has been developed in Brazil and Argentina, "she said.

Edinilsa also talked about the choice of cities where the study was enhanced and explained that the trend in the murder rate was observed. "Other criteria were also used, such as: exclusion of capital cities, because they are areas already quite focused in studies on this topic; municipalities with over 100,000 inhabitants; have information on deaths for the entire series,"she said.

Current Reality

Currently in Brazil, all the quantitative and qualitative material is being analyzed. In Argentina, fieldwork is being done. According to the coordinator, until this date, one doctoral thesis and one MSc Thesis were written and defended at the National School of Public Health Sergio Arouca (ENSP / Fiocruz): the MSc thesis "A systemic look at families of young murder victims" by Daniella Harth da Costa; and the doctoral thesis "Murder of young people in Brazil: the challenge of understanding the fatal consequence of violence," by Juliana Guimarães and Silva.