NCJ Number
181007
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 9 Dated: 1999 Pages: 56-68
Date Published
1999
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper compares and attempts to integrate the results of the two largest international empirical sources of crime and criminal justice data (the United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operation of Criminal Justice Systems and the International Crime Victim Survey) with respect to world crime levels.
Abstract
These two sources provide different pictures of conventional crime from an international perspective. One of the main factors that contributes to differences in crime levels based on these two international data sources relates to police reporting patterns. These are much higher in the industrialized world compared with other developmental regions. Differences are due to a number of factors related to the propensity to report to the police, including the degree of insurance coverage and the public confidence in police. Comparative analysis stimulates discussion on the relationships between development and crime, particularly in relation to the modernization theory. The results challenge modernization theory, whose empirical base is composed exclusively of official criminal justice statistics. The International Crime Victim Survey empirical base, composed of citizens' direct experience with crime and reporting to the police, seriously undermines the very foundations of the prevalent explanatory paradigm regarding development and crime relationships. 6 tables and 17 references