International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 136

The Economic Costs of Crime in Brazil
Marcelo Pasqualetti
An Officer of the Federal Police of Brazil, Marcelo Pasqualetti has a law degree
and has also completed other specialist university courses, including
Public Safety Management (Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina, Brazil),
Strategic Intelligence (Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras, Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil), and Contemporary Criminal Threat Analysis (Université
Paris II – Panthéon-Assas, Paris, France). Having been trained in criminal
intelligence in Lausanne, Switzerland, he is currently in his second year
of an Economic Intelligence Masters course at the Université de Poitiers,
France. Marcelo Pasqualetti has served as head of the Federal Police's central
intelligence department and as assistant domestic security attaché to
the Brazilian embassy in Paris. He is currently the head of the representative
office for the Superior Court of Justice in Rio de Janeiro.
Abstract
The report Análise dos custos e conseqüências da violência no Brasil
(Analyzing the costs and consequences of violence in Brazil) presents
several interesting conclusions. According to Bourguignon
and Morrison (2000), it is important to keep in mind three goals
when evaluating the social costs of crime and violence: identifying
levels of violence in relation to certain social policies, dividing
resources optimally between social policies and public safety, and
helping to direct these public resources toward the social programs
that will have the best public safety outcomes. These authors also
divide the costs of violence and criminality in Brazil into three
main categories: those related to crime-production (the cost of resources
used for criminal acts, the public costs of crime prevention
and punishment, including legal and incarceration costs), collateral
costs for victims, and various associated social costs, such as
lower investment rates and higher unemployment.
According to the Atlas da Violência 2017 (2017 Atlas of Violence),
the total number of terrorist attacks in 2017 was lower than the
number of murders in Brazil during any given three-week period:
3,314 terrorism-related deaths annually, compared to 3,400 murders
every three weeks in Brazil.
Keywords: Brazil, costs, violence, crime, homicide
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