Mega-Events and Police Violence: Evidence from the Rio Olympics

Abstract

This thesis discusses how large-scale security mobilization for mega-events influences patterns of state violence, with the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games as a case study. Two central questions are investigated: whether Olympic security measures created measurable impacts in police use of lethal force, and if these effects were spread unevenly across urban space. The analysis is based on a theoretical framework that views mega-events as periods of exceptional governance and security as a locationally selective and distributive practice. Connecting to scholarship on urban securitization and state violence, the study argues that security is not applied uniformly but is instead dispersed according to economic, political, and spatial preferences, creating uneven exposure to protection and coercion. Empirically, the study relies on administrative data from the Instituto de Segurança Pública (ISP), containing monthly observations of police intervention deaths across Rio de Janeiro’s Áreas Integradas de Segurança Pública (AISPs) from 2010 to 2020. The primary outcome variable (police intervention deaths per 100,000 residents) acts as a direct measure of state violence. A descriptive difference-in-differences (DiD) framework is used to compare trends between Olympic and non-Olympic areas across pre-Olympic (2010–2013), Olympic (2014–2016), and post-Olympic (2017–2020) periods, further supported by time-series and spatial analyses. The findings show that police intervention deaths increased during and after the Olympic period. However, these increases were not confined to Olympic venue areas. Instead, the results show a citywide increase in police killings rather than just Olympic localized impacts. These findings support existing literature by providing quantitative, spatially disaggregated evidence on the relationship between mega-events and state violence, addressing a gap in the current, primarily qualitative research. The study highlights the possibility that mega-event security can produce lasting institutional effects and emphasizes the importance of oversight mechanisms to mitigate the enduring expansion of abusive policing practices. These findings suggest that mega-event security operates through institutional diffusion rather than localized spatial concentration, reshaping policing practices at the citywide level.