Criminal Victimization in Cross-National Perspective

Abstract

This research examines the effect of resource deprivation, criminal opportunities and social disorganization on national rates of homicide, non-lethal violence, theft and car vandalism. Previous cross-national research has concentrated on homicide variation, owing to the comparative problems associated with rates for other crimes. In the present article, International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) data on various contact crimes, as well as homicide figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), are analysed across 27 East European and Western countries. First, a comparison of homicide levels with victimization rates for theft and non-lethal violence indicates considerable overlap, which suggests that countries with high levels of homicide tend to have high levels of other violence and theft too. Second, results from multivariate analyses indicate that income inequality is the most consistent structural correlate of victimization rates for homicide, theft, non-lethal violence and car damage across this selection of countries. Also, homicide and theft show negative relations with GDP per capita. This may indicate that societal development goes together with lower levels of exposure to likely homicide offenders (family, friends). However, the results provide no support for the crime-inducing impact of high target attractiveness, thereby challenging predictions derived from routine activity theory on theft.