Is Crime Rising or Falling? A Comparison of Police-Recorded Crime and Victimization Surveys

Author(s):  
Barak Ariel ◽  
Matthew Bland
Author(s):  
Tim Newburn

What is happening to crime? Are things getting better or worse, and in what ways? ‘Understanding recent trends in crime’ examines recorded crime trends and data from victimization surveys from America, Canada, England and Wales, and Australia. All four Western democracies display similar patterns: rising crime in the post-war years, hitting a peak somewhere between the late 1980s and late 1990s, then falling steeply for the fifteen‒twenty-five years since. This leaves two big questions: why did crime increase in the early decades after the Second World War; and, why has it been declining in the past fifteen‒twenty-five years? The reasons for the post-war crime explosion are discussed.


1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Block

Comparison of national crime surveys must be made very cautiously because of differences in sampling, methodology and content. In this report methodological differences between the United States' National Crime Survey and victimization surveys of other countries are examined and survey estimates of victimization are adjusted. It is found that U.S. rates of assault/threat, robbery, and burglary are not extraordinarily higher than those of other eleven other countries or regions. However, U.S. levels of gun use are much higher and U.S. levels of both gun and non-gun lethal violence (using Killias, 1990) far exceed those of other industrialized societies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-466
Author(s):  
Doriam Borges ◽  
Ignácio Cano

While some studies suggest that the nature of one´s interactions with the community influences one’s perceived risk of criminal victimization, only a few pieces of research have tested this association in Brazil. Using four previously existing Brazilian victimization surveys, we conducted logistic models to examine whether social ties and social cohesion are associated with perceived risk and fear of crime. The results showed that only in some contexts did social cohesion manifest an association with fear of crime. Specifically, two components of social cohesion may be relevant for this purpose: trusting neighbours and getting help; and the ability to distinguish neighbours from strangers in the street.


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