RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Brazil registered a record 63,880 violent deaths in 2017, a report published by the Brazilian Public Security Forum showed Thursday.

There are 175 violent deaths per day on average in the South American country. Compared to 2016, the number of murders has increased by 2.9 percent.

According to the forum's Annual Public Security Report, the state of Rio Grande do Norte in northeastern Brazil had the highest murder rate in Brazil: 68 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants. The state of Acre in the north ranked second with 63 deaths for every 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Ceara state in the northeast, with 59.1 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants.

The lowest murder rate was registered in Sao Paulo -- 10.7 murders for every 100,000 inhabitants.

The forum's director Renato Sergio de Lima blamed the rise in violent deaths on both a new wave of organized crime and outdated, inefficient public security measures.

Crime against women has risen as well in Brazil in 2017, with rapes up by 8.4 percent to 60,018 cases. Domestic violence cases totaled 221,238, an average of 606 per day, and murders of women totaled 4,539.