Understanding the Roots of Coastal Violence in São Paulo: Key Insights

The state of São Paulo has the lowest homicide rates in the country. However, one region that stands out in relation to its high average is the coast of São Paulo, which, within the state, has the highest rates. The Sou da Paz Institute released a ranking in which it counted different types of violence and crimes in cities in São Paulo with more than 50 thousand inhabitants. There were 136 cities in the state that were included in the count, of which 12 were on the coast.

Within the top 10, six are coastal cities – that is, even though they represent less than 10% of the total, the coast was represented in more than half of the most violent cities. An old argument used to explain this phenomenon is the large number of tourists, which increased the movement of people and goods of interest without increasing the population. However, the recent count by the Sou da Paz Institute took this factor into consideration: despite a slight improvement, it was almost negligible, not even changing the top 10.

Organized crime on the coast
Bruno Paes Manso, from the Center for Violence Studies at USP, says that, in the case of Brazil, homicide rates are almost always linked to faction conflicts and imbalances in the drug market. “The PCC arrived, the Comando Vermelho arrived, there are local gangs, they end up competing for the market and often, as a result of this struggle for power, there are cycles of violence that lead to an increase in homicides,” he explains. “In the same way, when groups define their spaces and things reach a relative balance, homicides tend to fall,” he adds.

One example is the city of São Paulo, which, despite being dominated by the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) – or rather, precisely because of this –, has low homicide rates. In the early 2000s, the capital’s homicide rate was 51.7 per 100,000 inhabitants; now, the rate is 4. The faction’s hegemony prevented conflicts over territory from escalating, reducing the number of violent incidents.

Strategic ports
Researcher Marcelo Nery, also from NEV, adds to the points made by Bruno Paes. According to him, the high levels of violence on the coast may indicate areas of conflict between the PCC and local factions. The fact that this is happening on the coast may be due to a specific reason: the ports. “The coast is a sensitive area with regard to drug trafficking. Not only the drug trafficking that distributes drugs and weapons to Brazil, but also as a connection point between what arrives in Brazil and goes to other parts of the world.”

Ports are strategic points for trafficking, especially for international trade. Therefore, the coastal region ends up being highly disputed by factions and its surroundings tend to also suffer from this.

Police actions
The researcher says that police action is also essential to understanding this case. Perhaps because of the drug trafficking’s special interest in operating in port areas, security agents also operate intensively in the region. “The police are involved in deaths in general in the state of São Paulo, but also specifically on the coast.”

Santos, for example, was one of the cities that did not have such a bad situation, but in the next ranking this should change. In Operation Summer, which took place between February and March in Baixada, 56 civilians were killed by police action. “This violence by the police itself cannot be forgotten when you create this scenario of violence on the coast,” says Nery. He also highlights how, despite the dysfunctionality in certain cases, these types of actions continue to have support in public and political opinion. “As incredible as it may seem, there is still a lot of support from the population for the police to be violent.”

Climate consequences
Furthermore, Marcelo Nery points out another specific factor of the coast, which is that it is more prone to climate disasters. “Climate emergencies are happening and tend to be increasingly frequent. On the coast, this is also a reality and this context, as a trend, leads to an increase in violence.” The reason for this would be a breakdown in social cohesion. After an accident or disaster, the established order becomes fragile and the needs of people, including criminals, also increase.

Therefore, the search for income or advantages increases, while policing and surveillance decrease. The coast, because it is between land and sea and suffers from stronger and more frequent environmental impacts, such as floods, landslides and heavy rains, ends up being a region more affected by the resulting crime. The researcher mentions, for example, “the increased risk of robberies in homes and businesses due to this crisis situation”.

“We observe that, in the context of humanitarian emergencies, when there are homeless people, these people are at risk of violent acts, especially women and children, and especially in relation to violence against the person, such as rape, for example. So, we have some circumstances that undermine a structure that is already proving to be ineffective,” he adds.

Finally, it is important to emphasize that the points raised provide a way of understanding the situation, but they are not exhaustive. Both experts state that the issue of violence and public safety is complex and multifaceted, and it is often necessary to study each case individually in order to have a specific answer. According to them, the reasons given serve as a general parameter and points of similarity between coastal municipalities, but it is not possible to definitively state that they explain the rates in a homogeneous way.