NCJ Number
93684
Date Published
1984
Length
343 pages
Annotation
This collection of data on major crimes for 110 nations and 44 international cities from 1900 to 1970 permits the analysis of significant issues regarding the patterns and causes of violent crime.
Abstract
The study uses the cross-national data to identify recurrent patterns and some of the causes of violent crime, provides illustrative case studies of the kinds of investigation made possible by comparative research on violence, and furnishes a large data set of potential value to investigators -- the Comparative Crime Data File (CCDF). The opening chapters present a theoretical and methodological rationale for a cross-national approach to the study of crime and violence. Other chapters use the CCDF to provide some comparative insights into specific questions about the pattern and etiology of violent crime. One conclusion derived from the data is that societies with a death penalty do not have a lower homicide rate than those without capital punishment. Another conclusion is that nations that have just been to war do experience substantial increases in their rates of homicide, whether the wars were large or small and whether or not the nation was victorious. Postwar increases were most frequent, however, among nations with larger numbers of combat deaths. There is no strong evidence that as a city becomes larger, its homicide rate will increase. In fact, data indicate that homicide rates in cities around the world were as likely to decrease with city growth as they were to increase. Other issues considered are whether unemployment, recession, and depression affect rates of homicide and other offenses, as well as whether changes in the extent of gun ownership in a society have an effect on the rates of violent crime. Tabular data, about 200 references, and a subject index are provided.