SOCIAL VULNERABILITY, LETHAL VIOLENCE, AND YOUTH: BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS AND CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION (1983–2024)
Abstract
The study analyzed the evolution and structure of scientific production on social vulnerability, youth, and lethal violence, with a focus on homicides, covering the period from 1983 to 2024. A total of 1,168 articles indexed in the Scopus database were examined. The methodological approach combined bibliometric analysis, scientific mapping, and Multiple Correspondence Analysis, using the Bibliometrix package in R, enabling the identification of collaboration networks among countries, thematic organization, and lexical co-occurrence patterns. The results indicate an average annual growth rate of 12.7% in scientific production. The collaboration network shows concentration in countries with higher structural centrality, while others occupy intermediate or peripheral positions. At the thematic level, the topic of homicides is characterized as a basic theme, with broad connections to other topics but lower centrality in conceptual innovation. Additionally, a qualitative analysis was conducted on a subset of studies with thematic intersection across the three research axes (n=120). This analysis highlights the recurrence of profiles associated with youth, social inequality, and vulnerable territories. The results indicate the predominance of lethal violence as an outcome variable and point to gaps in the analysis of its structural determinants.
Author Biographies
Bachelor’s degree in Statistics. PhD candidate in Earth and Environmental Sciences and in Modeling in Earth and Environmental Sciences at the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS). Master’s degree in Management and Applied Technologies from the Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB). Works as Statistics Coordinator at the Instituto de Segurança Pública, Estatística e Pesquisa Criminal (ISPE/PCBA) and as a collaborating researcher at the Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Coletiva e Segurança Pública (NESSP/UNEB). Research interests include the intersection between geotechnologies, violence, and crime.
PhD in Sciences from the Graduate Program in Epidemiology in Public Health at the Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca (ENSP), Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Coordinator and researcher at the Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre Desigualdades em Saúde (NUDES/UEFS). Associate Professor (full-time) in the Nursing program at Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS). Faculty member in the Graduate Programs in Modeling in Earth and Environmental Sciences (PPGM/UEFS), Public Health (PPGSC and MPSC), and in the Multiprofessional Residency in Urgency and Emergency (UEFS).
PhD in Public Health from the Instituto de Saúde Coletiva da Universidade Federal da Bahia (2007). Visiting research period (2006) and postdoctoral training (2013) at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC/USA), with financial support from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES). Permanent faculty member of the Graduate Program in Public Health (PPGSC/UEFS). Researcher at the Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre Desigualdades Sociais em Saúde (NUDES).
PhD in Geology (2001) from the Universidade Federal da Bahia, with a training period in Geographic Information Systems at the Geological Survey of Canada (1999), and postdoctoral training in 2016 at the ITC Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation, University of Twente (Netherlands). Coordinator of MapBiomas Caatinga and the Portal Geocovid, and project coordinator at INCT IN-TREE. Served as Superintendent for Scientific Development at the Secretaria de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação do Estado da Bahia (2019–2021). Director of the Núcleo de Inovação Tecnológica da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (NIT-UEFS) since February 2022.
PhD in Public Health from the Graduate Program in Public Health (PPGSC) at the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS) (2021). Currently serves as Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Undergraduate Program in Physiotherapy at the Department of Life Sciences (DCV), supervisor in the Scientific Initiation Program (IC/PPG) and Affirmative Program (AF/PROAF) at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia (UNEB), and leader of the Núcleo de Estudos em Saúde Coletiva e Segurança Pública (NESSP/UNEB/CNPq).
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