The relationship between the Municipal Human Development Index and rates of violent death in Brazilian Federal Units

Abstract

Because countries with the highest Human Development Index (HDI) have low rates of violence, it is common to assume that the increase of HDI may correspond with lower rates of violence in a country. This study examined the relationship between the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) and violent deaths in the Brazilian States between 1991 and 2010. We tested whether the increase of MHDI indirectly reduces violence or whether the reduction of violence predicts higher MHDI in later years. The raw data were obtained from three sources online, Atlasbrasil, IPEAdata and Map of violence. The analyses do not support the assumption that the increase of MHDI leads to a reduced level of violence. However, there are indications that the decrease of homicides over the years results in improved MHDI rates in 2010. The results suggest that taking measures aimed at development does not automatically imply a lower level of violence, but fi ghting against violence may increase MHDI.

Is there race/color differential on femicide in Brazil? The inequality of mortality rates for violent causes among white and black women

“…Although these limitations matter, confronting femicide cannot be based only on the force of laws, requiring public policies that reduce gender inequities and inequalities in all areas of society 2,7 . Furthermore, analyses indicate a relationship between the decrease in homicides and improvement in the Human Development Index (HDI) over the years in Brazil 39 .…”

Mapa da vulnerabilidade social do município de Natal-RN em nível de setor censitário

“…Some authors defend the hypothesis that the acceleration of human development (especially with increased income and education levels) can, in the long term, lead to a decrease in violence, and conversely, an increase in violence can hinder human development. The study by Winzer 26 analysed the relationship between human development, inequalities, proportion of poor people and violence in the Brazilian federative states, and demonstrated that this relationship is complex and that a decrease in homicides between 1991 and 2009 resulted in better municipal human development indices in 2010 26 .…”

Development of a Sustainability Index at the Local Level: methodological proposal and its application in the case study of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

“…The MHDI was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Brazil, the Brazilian Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) and the João Pinheiro Foundation based on an adaptation of the global Human Development Index (HDI) for the Brazilian municipalities' reality (Lucena et al, 2018;Winzer, 2016;Malik, 2014). The index considers the same three original dimensions of the HDI -income, longevity and education -adapting the methodology to the Brazilian context and the availability of national data.…”

“…The MHDI calculation methodology works in a similar way to the global HDI taking into account the three main axes: income, longevity and education, identified as standard of living, long and healthy life and access to knowledge, respectively (Winzer, 2016;Malik, 2014). Nevertheless, this indicator fails to analyze environmental variables.…”

“…Therefore, the main motivation for this work is to provide environmental discussions to the practical field, and not just treat them as intangible objectives at the level of international conferences. As a consequence, this paper aims to present the methodological development of a sustainability indicator based on the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) (Winzer, 2016;Malik, 2014), in a way to add an environmental factor to this well-known index. The proposed indicator, called MHDI+S, is then applied to the state of Rio de Janeiro in order to understand the characteristics of the state's municipalities under the categories of the method.…”