Racial Democracy and Black Victimization in Brazil

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to quantify racial victimization differential between Blacks and Whites in Brazil, focusing on homicides and physical assaults. Combining socioeconomic data from the Brazilian Household Survey with data from the Mortality Information System, we apply the Oaxaca–Blinder decomposition to isolate the racial discrimination component from the social indicators correlated with homicides and physical assaults. Findings indicate that only part of the victimization differential between Blacks and Whites is explained by structural attributes. A significant portion of this differential (at least 40%) for both homicides and physical assaults persists as evidence of racial discrimination. In addition, both for homicides and physical assaults, a more discriminatory scenario is observed in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, regions historically characterized by higher social inequalities and violent mortality.