NCJ Number
219364
Date Published
2006
Length
24 pages
Annotation
After reviewing the history of the development and administration of the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS), this paper presents some key findings on global, regional, and national crime based on the ICVS and other international crime-data collection instruments.
Abstract
The ICVS for 1996 and 2000 found that the countries with the highest prevalence rates for conventional crime were mainly in Latin America or sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of Mongolia, Cambodia, and Estonia. Countries of Europe and North America are almost without exception situated in the middle category. Contrary to common perception, overall rates of volume crime--such as burglary, robbery, and assault/threats--are not higher in the United States than in most parts of Western Europe. Available trend data point to a continued decline in victimization by common crime across these developed countries since 2000. Statistics on police-recorded homicides are available through the United Nations Crime Survey, with the latest covering 2000-2002. The other main source of information is the health statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO) through hospital surveys. This paper shows regional rates for completed homicides per 100,000 population in 2002 or the latest year for which data are available. Homicide rates were highest in Southern Africa at 30 per 100,000. The United Nations surveys show a global average of 7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants per year in recent years. For 2000, the WHO counted over half a million homicide-related deaths (8.8 per 100,000). The concluding section of this paper integrates the various indexes of crime and justice into one composite index of "lawfulness." This lawfulness index allows a rapid identification of countries where the degree of "lawfulness" is comparatively high as well as those countries where lawfulness is low. 4 tables, 3 figures, and 32 references