Intra-urban differentials in death rates from homicide in the city of São Paulo, Brazil,1988-1994

The objective of this research was to analyze the relationship between socioeconomic statistics and homicide mortality rates in the city of São Paulo between 1988 and 1994. City districts were grouped into five geographic areas. A socioeconomic indicator (ISE) was constructed with census information combining average income of the family head, illiteracy rate for the population over 5Â yr of age, average number of rooms and number of persons per household. The higher the score, the better the socioeconomic situation (possible values: 4 to 384). Deaths from homicide were grouped by residential areas, and the rates for these areas were calculated. The association between homicide rates and the socioeconomic situation was analyzed with Spearman correlation coefficients. Average ISE scores varied from 291 in the Central area (homicide rate=27.96 deaths per 100[punctuation space]000) to 119.9 in the East area (homicide rate=40.38). The Spearman coefficient between ISEs and homicide rates was -0.98 (purban violence homicide intra-urban differentials health inequality