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Comparative Criminal Justice
5th Edition

Chapter 2: Measuring and Comparing Crime in and across Nations

Adrianna Hughes

University of Scranton

Learning Objectives: Chapter 2

  • Discuss why we should measure and compare crime statistics in other countries
  • Explore some reasons for the high rate of violent crime in the United States
  • Identify the primary sources of international crime statistics
  • Analyze the three major limitations of international crime statistics
  • Describe how to best compare international crime statistics

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Why Measure and Compare Crime Data?

  • Primary reason: To determine risk
  • Risk of crime- evaluates that probability that certain crimes will occur and their potential harm.

  • Crime statistics summarize experience- make it easier to determine whether we live in a safe place, dangerous place, etc.

  • Learning more about crime data is important in improving societal conditions

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Why Measure and Compare Crime Data?

  • Measuring crime and comparing crime data in other countries serve two larger purposes.

  • 1. Collecting data about crime allows us to determine the kinds and extent of crimes reported in any one country and, helps us to distinguish long term patterns from year to year trends
  • 2. Measuring crime and comparing crime data provides clues as to why some nations are more successful than others in controlling crime rates.

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

The Historical Background of International Crime Data

  • General Statistical Congress in Brussels(1853)- first attempt to collect data on crime at the international level
  • International Congress on the Prevention and Repression of Crime in London- another attempt to collect international crime data
  • The major issue discussed at both of these meetings was how to define certain crimes.

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

The Historical Background of International Crime Data

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

  • 1940’s-1970’s- crime data collection was limited to the International Criminal Police Organization, often called Interpol
  • 1970- The United Nations General Assembly developed a survey that would collect information form member countries about crime rates and the operations of criminal justice systems
  • The United Nations Surveys of Crime and Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems(CTS)

The Historical Background of International Crime Data

  • CTS- consists of four parts dealing primarily with statistical information about the main components of the criminal justice system
  • Police, prosecution, courts, and prisons
  • Annex- the annex was developed for countries in Europe and requested supplementary information on police-recorded crime statistics relating to homicide and thefts of motor vehicles

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Three Perspectives on crime: Police

  • Uniform crime reports (UCR)- collected by each police agency in the United States and compiled by the FBI annually
  • Only counts those crimes reported to the police- crimes not reported are missed
  • Less than half of all crimes are reported to the police
  • The UCR is voluntary- not all police departments report crime data every year
  • UCR gathers information on a limited range of offenses- see pg. 19
  • UCR also counts arrests for 29 other less serious offenses

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Three Perspectives on crime: Police

  • National Incident- Based Reporting System(NIBRS)- collects data on every incident and arrest within 22 offense categories made up of 46 specific crimes
  • NIBRS – developed to broaden the extent and depth of crime data gathered by police agencies
  • The potential of NIBRS as a national data source has not yet been fully realized

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Current Example

  • In the following video clip Piers Morgan and Alex Jones are having a “debate” about gun control. In the discussion the issue of crime statistics comes up and there is some question of the validity and extent of Great Britain's violent crime rate and gun deaths during 2011.
  • Watch this clip. Then search for violent crime rates and gun deaths in both the United States and Great Britain.
  • Discuss your findings. Which country the higher violent crime rate? Which country has higher deaths via guns?
  • http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRT1fX0pdHE

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Three Perspectives on crime:
Victim

  • National Crime Victimization Survey(NCVS)-participants are asked questions about their experiences with crime in recent months
  • Annual survey- covers six crimes
  • Rape, robbery, assault, larceny, burglary, motor vehicle theft
  • NCVS improves our knowledge of the dark figure of crime- amount of crime that occurs which is unknown to the police or the general public
  • Victimization surveys reveal there is between two to three times more crime occurring than is reported to police

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Three Perspectives on crime:
Offender

  • Self Report Surveys- people are asked to report their own delinquent and criminal acts In an anonymous questionnaire or confidential interview
  • Provide information on victimless crimes
  • Mostly used with young persons
  • International Self- Report Delinquency study(IRSD)- compares juvenile rates in 12 European locations and the United States
  • Shows 80- 90% of juveniles had committed one or a combination of property, violent, and drug crimes.

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

International Crime Data

  • Many countries have some kind of crime reporting system- but there is no standardization between countries.
  • United Nations surveys are the most comprehensive
  • Response rates from member states- less than 50%
  • Developing countries are underrepresented
  • Developing country- one with a low level of material and social development
  • Developed country- high level of development, measured by indicators gross domestic product and industrialization

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

International Crime Data

  • Interpol- no longer publishes crime statistics because they did not correlate well with crime data generated from the UN

  • ICVS- best sources of international crime data
  • Advantage- avoiding government controlled data collection or screening and use of standard crime definitions
  • Collection tool- computer assisted telephone interviewing, which randomly calls a sample of 800 to 2,000 individuals in each country
  • Interested in incidents both reported and not reported to police
  • Table 2.1 illustrates the percentage of people victimized one or more times by any of the 10 crimes included In the ICVS.

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

International Crime Data

  • Why many countries do not participate in the international crime surveys

  • Countries are too small- administrative staffs may not be able to handle all the requests
  • Countries involved in civil war- not concerned with keeping track of crime problems
  • Emerging countries have not developed a system of collection and dissemination of crime data
  • Some countries lack technological resources
  • Some countries have the resources- but refuse because they are concerned that crime data will negatively affect the nation’s world standing or tourist trade

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

International Crime Data

  • Lack of standard definitions of crime among countries- plagued comparative researchers for years
  • Hard to distinguish what is a crime versus what is legal
  • What a country decides is illegal tells us something about that nation’s social, economic, and political, situation

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Homicide Rates

  • Three regions with the highest homicide rates: Southern Africa, Central America, South Africa
  • Lowest: Western and Central Europe, East Asia, Southeastern Europe
  • Approximately 60 percent of all homicides are committed with firearms

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Crime Rates in Model Countries and United States

  • Lowest crime rates- Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany
  • Highest- France and United States
  • China does not have homicide rates published regularly over time
  • ICVS reports that the United States has the highest overall rates, for the 10 crimes surveyed.

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Countries with Low Crime

  • Switzerland
  • Japan- often compared to Western countries
  • Culture is different from western values in many ways
  • Stresses group norms
  • Suppression of individualism
  • Suspicion of outsiders
  • Harmony and conflict avoidance
  • Heterogeneity
  • Close surveillance over population- but low incarceration rate

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Countries with Low Crime

  • Saudi Arabia
  • Does not participate in the ICVS
  • Not highly developed or urbanized
  • Saudi’s offer two reasons for low crime rate
  • Harsh corporal punishments
  • Fewer crimes because of their devotion to the Qur’an and its teachings

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

How Does the United States Measure Up?

  • High level of crime
  • Problem of violent crime
  • Murder rate is much higher than that of other countries with similar developed societies and economies
  • Why high violent crime rate?
  • Economic disparity between rich and poor
  • Heterogeneity of the population
  • History of violence and violence of media
  • Easy access to guns
  • Lack of respect for authority

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Current Example

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Four Approaches to Criminal Behavior

Primary Cause of crime

  • Positivist- Internal or external factors(social, economic, etc.)
  • Classical- Free will decision guided by hedonistic tendency to maximize pleasure and minimize pain

Prescribed Remedy

  • Rehabilitation or reform by changing these internal or external conditions, or changing a person’s reaction to them
  • Deterrence through threat of apprehension and punishment

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Four Approaches to Criminal Behavior

Primary Cause of Crime

  • Structural- political and economic conditions promote a culture of competitive individualism- individual gain becomes more important than the social good
  • Ethical- Free- will decision is guided by ethical principles in which an individual fails to appreciate an act’s wrongfulness and lacks empathy for the victim

Prescribed Remedy

  • More equitable distribution of power and wealth in society, so that all individuals have a greater stake in a better society
  • Education and reinforcement in ethical decision making from an early age; reduction of external factors that promote unethical decisions

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

5th Edition

Current Example