BRASILIA, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's homicide cases hit a record high of 63,880 in 2017, or seven murders every hour, according to figures released on Thursday.
The number of total homicides represents an increase of 2.9 percent over the year before, news network Globo said, citing a report by the Brazilian Public Security Forum.
These statistics place Brazil among the world's most violent countries.
In a 2015 comparison, the latest available, the World Bank ranked Brazil as the world's sixth-most dangerous country, behind El Salvador, Honduras, Venezuela, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, with 26.7 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
Last year's total means there were 30.8 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.
Brazil's northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, one of the country's poorest regions, registered the highest number of homicides, with 68 per 100,000.
The state with the lowest homicide rate was the industrial center of Sao Paulo (10.7 per 100,000).
The study points to a worrying 20 percent rise year-on-year in the number of killings caused by police, for a total of 5,144 deaths, or 14 per day.
Violence against women is also on the rise, up 6.1 percent, with 4,539 women becoming murder victims.
The number of domestic violence cases reported last year reached 221,238, or 606 cases a day.
The incidence of rape also rose, by 8.4 percent.
