How crime in Brazil drags down the economy and heaps economic pain on the nation’s poor

By: Robert Muggah, Instituto Igarapé; Princeton University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: December 9, 2025

Words: 1,328

Last Updated: 1 month ago

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By Robert Muggah, Instituto Igarapé; Princeton University

Brazil’s “criminal economy” does not appear on any national balance sheet. Yet the cost of violence, contraband, tax evasion and environmental crime can be measured in the tens of billions of dollars every year and serves as a major drag on Brazil’s economic growth and stability.

Attempts to quantify this burden go back at least a decade. An influential 2017 study by the Inter-American Development Bank estimated …

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