In a recent podcast, comedian Gregorio Duvivier turned his attention to Rio de Janeiro’s reputation for violence, dismissing this fear as a myth cultivated by outsiders.
“[People from São Paulo] repeat it at night like a mantra, watching and sharing images of Rio’s violence to reassure themselves they could never live there, because it is impossible to live in Rio,” Duvivier said. “I think it is a myth that is nurtured so they can sleep at night knowing they don’t live in Rio, because it’s not easy to fall asleep thinking you could live in Rio, but don’t.”
The provocation touched a nerve, particularly because Rio’s reputation — both within Brazil and abroad — has long oscillated between paradise and war zone. On the one hand, postcards of beaches, samba and carnival fuel a global fascination. On the other, headlines of shootouts, drug gangs and police raids have cemented an image of chaos. The truth lies somewhere in between.
Rio de Janeiro is indeed violent — but less so than many Brazilians assume. The state was once one of Brazil’s deadliest, with nearly 40 homicides per 100,000 residents in 2017, compared with 31 nationwide. Since then, Rio’s homicide rate has dropped sharply, falling to around 25 per 100,000 last year, converging with the national average.
Brazilians conflate the city of Rio with the wider state. Rio de Janeiro has 92 municipalities. Some are far more violent than the capital and skew statewide violence indicators upwards.
In Rio de Janeiro city, the homicide rate is well below the national average at 14.1 per 100,000 residents. After inching upward in 2023 and early 2024, it has begun to decline again in recent months. In São Paulo, the rate is lower, at about 8 per 100,000. Shootouts in Rio remain concentrated in poorer areas and favelas.
According to the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, not one of the country’s 20 most violent cities in 2023 or 2024 was in Rio state. At the state level, Rio ranked 15th of 27 in Brazil for violent deaths.
👉 Why it matters. The paradox is that while lethal violence has fallen, other crimes are climbing. Rio was the only state in Brazil where overall robberies increased last year. Vehicle thefts jumped 34%, while cellphone thefts soared 38% (although Rio city did not figure among the national top 20 in cellphone theft). Street robberies in general are on the rise.
Another flagrant problem in Rio is the open presence of heavily armed gangs. One in every five people in Rio’s metro area lives in an area controlled by a criminal group.
Around 40% of all military-grade rifles seized from criminals in Brazil were in Rio. It is no surprise, then, that the metropolitan region recorded 1,233 shootouts in the first half of this year, according to the monitoring group Fogo Cruzado. While that represented an 8% drop overall, confrontations between rival gangs increased, as did those involving police. More than half the victims of gunfire were caught up in police operations.
These battles make Rio exceptional not only in Brazil but globally. Outside of Mexico and Colombia, few countries witness such routine urban firefights. Their impact ripples far beyond crime statistics: research shows schools in violent areas lose entire years of student learning in Portuguese and math, as closures and stress undermine education.
Duvivier’s claim that Rio’s violence is a “myth” resonates with many residents who refuse to see their city solely through the lens of crime. Yet his perspective may also reflect privilege.
Coming from old money, the comedian may live and work in areas shielded from daily insecurity, where the presence of police and private security blunts the risks most Rio residents face. For those in working-class neighborhoods, shootouts and stray bullets are not abstractions but part of daily life.
Still, dismissing the city as a war zone is equally misleading. For outsiders, the fixation on Rio’s violence has long distorted perceptions, discouraging investment and tourism and reinforcing stereotypes. The data shows that while Rio remains unsafe in many ways, it is no longer the country’s epicenter of lethal crime.
