section_path: Government and politics/Law enforcement and crime
section_name: Law enforcement and crime
paragraph_text: Law enforcement and crime
  
  In Brazil, the Constitution establishes six different police agencies for law enforcement: Federal Police Department, Federal Highway Police, Federal Railroad Police, Federal, District and State Penal Police (included by the Constitutional Amendment No. 104, of 2019), Military Police and Civil Police. Of these, the first three are affiliated with federal authorities, the last two are subordinate to state governments and the Penal Police can be subordinated to the federal or state/district government. All police forces are overseen by the executive branch of the federal or state government. The National Public Security Force also can act in public disorder situations arising anywhere in the country.
  
  The country has high levels of violent crime, such as gun violence and homicides. In 2022, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimated an intentional homicide rate of 21.1 per 100,000 inhabitants. The number considered acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO) is about 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2024, Brazil recorded 38,772 homicides, down from 40,768 in 2023, and from a record 63,880 in 2017. Homicide rates vary regionally. While in São Paulo the homicide rate registered in 2023 was 6.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, in Amapá it was 57.4 per 100,000 inhabitants. The national homicide rate for 2024 was 17.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, the lowest in over a decade.
  
  Brazil also has high levels of incarceration. It had the third largest prison population in the world of approximately 909,067 prisoners in 2024, which put it only behind the United States (1,808,100) and China (1,690,000). The high number of prisoners eventually overloaded the Brazilian prison system, leading to a shortfall of about 200,000 accommodations.