Factofile> International comparison of
crime rates> Introduction
Countries' legal and
administrative systems and in specific the definitions of crimes in various
countries remain diverse despite the internationalization and globalization of
the world. However there are efforts to harmonize the legal area and find
universal definitions of crimes between countries and legal disciplines.
While reading this chapter
it is crucial to keep in mind that an absolute international comparison of crime
statistics and in specific recorded crime levels can be misleading. G. Barclay
and C. Travers identified the following six essential factors that affect the
recorded crime levels:
a) Different
legal and criminal justice systems;
b) Rates at
which crimes are reported to the police and recorded by them;
c)
Differences in the point at which crime is measured. For some countries,
this is
the time at which the offence is reported to the police while for
others
recording does not take place until a suspect is identified and the
papers
are forwarded to the prosecutor;
d) Differences
in the rules by which multiple offences are counted;
e) Differences
in the list of offences that are included in the overall crime
figures;
f) Data quality
The tables in is this
chapter are copied from the UK Home Office Statistical Bulletin 12/2003 and
modified with external data to fit the specific purpose with this report. The
study is limited in its comparison to the following three crimes due to space:
1. Homicide
2. Violent crime
3. Robbery
and limited to the following
fifteen countries and region:
1. India
2. Australia
3. Canada
4.
Japan
5. New
Zealand
6. Russia
7. South Africa
8. USA
9. EU average
1 0. England and Wales
11. France
12.
Germany
13. Italy
14. The
Netherlands 15. Spain
The aim of this section is
to try to give an international comparison of the Indian crime rate and police
performance.
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