Murder Rates Among Youths in Brazil Soar

In this article, I learned that the murder rate amongst youths in Brazil has increased dramatically in past ten years. The news article also stated that Brazil had the 6th highest murder rate- the first being El Salvador, the second being Columbia, and the third being Venezuela. This article left me puzzled as to why the countries with the three highest murder rates were in Latin America and why these nations are prone to such violence. This is definitely a topic I would like to explore further in class.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110224/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_murder_rate;_ylt=Av1p8H740DryZ3cjg4Ev1g.3IxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJzbDVqMmlsBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMjI0L2x0X2JyYXppbF9tdXJkZXJfcmF0ZQRwb3MDMTEEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDbXVyZGVycmF0ZWFt