After reaching a historic peak by the end of the 1990s, homicides in large cities in the state of São Paulo dropped …-25 age bracket and homicides at the statewide and at city levels, and argue that the relationship is causal. We estimate that … a 1% increase in the proportion of 15-to-24-year-old males causes a 4.5% increase in homicides. …

Mimicking the US in 1980 and 1990s, Brazil is a remarkable case of a major shift in homicides. After increasing … steadily throughout the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s, homicides reached a peak in 2003, and then fell. I show a strong … state in the country, and whose shift in homicides has been particularly acute. City-level panel elasticities are similar to …