Abstract
Abstract Our main purpose is to identify clusters based on the trends of male homicide rates in the 27 Brazilian states and to measure the association between the last male homicide rates and socioeconomic indicators. Ecological study to analyze the rates of male homicides by state. To measure the distances between two male homicide rate series, the dynamic time warping (DTW) method aligns the series to capture that trend changes may occur before or after for some series. Then, the DTW hierarchical cluster technique identified five clusters for the 27 Brazilian states, representing distinct temporal patterns of the male homicide rates in the last 30 years. Twelve states from the north and northeast regions presented sharp increases from a homicide rate around 20 per 100,000 men in 2000 to 70 in 2019. São Paulo state male homicide rate passed from 80 to 13 in the last 20 years. Other clusters presented high male homicide rates around 40 or 60 in 2019. High male homicide rates are associated with higher unemployment rates and lower human development indices and Gini’s indices.