Health and Safety Problems in Rio de Janeiro

There are many health and safety problems that people in Rio de Janeiro are currently facing today. Probably one of the main problems that Rio has is its large crime rate. Rio de Janeiro has been known for its high crime rate by the State Department for the past 25 years. Crime statistics continues to be critically high and rising levels of crimes in the city of Rio de Janeiro are indicative of organized crime units. They are dealing with categories of rape, theft, gangs, drug abuses and kidnapping.
Many different kinds of robberies are held in the city, especially street robberies and even robbery in your vehicle during the night. It is even difficult for tourists to come visit Rio de Janeiro because of the high crimes rates. Many tourists have experienced or seen both robbery and fraud in the city. Some even experienced rape. On April 3rd , 2012 an American woman visiting Brazil with her boyfriend was raped and beaten by 3 men onboard a bus. There should be a stricter system of law r rather have the government pass a new law regarding the issues of these crimes.
That would help the city of Rio to reduce the crimes happening there. Rio de Janeiro has been known for having many slums in the city, and these areas are called favelas. Rios favelas have been statistically the center of high crimes rates. Since the 1980s, nearly every Rio favela was controlled by violent drug gangs or criminal organizations. Rio de Janeiro has over 1,000 favelas. At one point, the favelas were the home of the most wanted man in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

There were many drug gangs and many people walking in the streets armed with weapons, fearing neither the police nor the government. Innocent people living in the area were afraid of the gangs. There were also many robberies and rape in the slums. In order to take care of the crime problem in their slums they established what is known as the Favela Pacification Program (FPP) first introduced in November 2008. It recruited thousands of police to secure and watch over almost every part of Rio’s favelas.
They established permanent presence called Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (UPP). Police took care and arrested violent drug gangs and even had the most known gangs in the slums in their custody. Because of this they were able to reduce the crime rates drastically in Rio de Janeiro. Another result of the UPPS formation is the decline of homicide rates in the city. Since 2005, homicides in the state and city of Rio de Janeiro have declined over 50 percent in real numbers and in the homicide rate.
The homicide rate in the ity of Rio de Janeiro has dropped dramatically from 42 homicides per 100,000 in 2005 to 24 homicides per 100,000 in 2012. Another health issue in Rio de Janeiro is the infant mortality rate. In Rio de Janeiro the rate varies greatly from region to region. In 2008, the citys overall average was 19 deaths for every 1,000 live births until 12 months old. Barra da TiJuca, a richer neighborhood in Rio recorded 6 deaths per 1,000 live births while another town in Rio has a rate of 21 deaths per 1,000 births. This shows the difference between the rich and the poor areas of Rio.
As for prenatal care for pregnant women in Rio, only 32% of women met the target of seven visits during pregnancy. The lack of prenatal care reflects the high percentage of infant mortality. To help with the issues of infant mortality rate, Rio should issue more health centers for women or people in need of health care, especially in the slums ot Rio. Not many people can attord medical care so it would help the people to have mini health centers around their neighborhood. Women would better be able to come for checkups during pregnancy.