International Crime Victims Survey Research Articles

Police Reporting by Sexual Assault Victims in Western and in Non-Western Countries

The current research had the primary goal of investigating the difference in police reporting patterns by sexual assault victims in Western and in non-Western countries. The data for the present study were obtained from the International Crime Victimization Survey. The present work found a significant difference in police reporting behavior by sexual assault victims in Western and in non-Western countries. Gender, urban residency, and the number of offenders were important factors for victims in non-Western countries, but not for those in Western countries. On the other hand, a victim’s prior relationship with his or her offender and family income level were significantly related to police reports in Western countries, but not in non-Western countries.

Income inequality, poverty and crime across nations.

We examine the relationship between income inequality, poverty, and different types of crime. Our results are consistent with recent research in showing that inequality is unrelated to homicide rates when poverty is controlled. In our multi-level analyses of the International Crime Victimization Survey we find that inequality is unrelated to assault, robbery, burglary, and theft when poverty is controlled. We argue that there are also theoretical reasons to doubt that the level of income inequality of a country affects the likelihood of criminal behaviour.

What Do Corruption Indices Measure?

Evidence from the International Crime Victimization Survey and the World Business Environment Survey suggests that actual corruption experience is a weak predictor of reported corruption perception, and that some of the factors commonly found to “reduce” corruption, such as economic development, democratic institutions or Protestant traditions, systematically bias corruption perception indices downward from corruption experience. In addition, perception indices are influenced by absolute (as opposed to relative) levels of corruption, which tends to penalize large countries, and they exhibit diminishing sensitivity to both absolute and relative corruption, indicating that they may better capture differences among countries with low levels of corruption than among highly corrupt ones. Individual characteristics such as education, age, or employment status, and firm‐level characteristics such as the number of competitors are also found to influence corruption perceptions holding experience constant.

Bring a gun to a gunfight: Armed adversaries and violence across nations

We use homicide data and the International Crime Victimization Survey to examine the role of firearms in explaining cross-national variation in violence. We suggest that while gun violence begets gun violence, it inhibits the tendency to engage in violence without guns. We attribute the patterns to adversary effects—i.e., the tendency of offenders to take into account the threat posed by their adversaries. Multi-level analyses of victimization data support the hypothesis that living in countries with high rates of gun violence lowers an individual’s risk of an unarmed assault and assaults with less lethal weapons. Analyses of aggregate data show that homicide rates and gun violence rates load on a separate underlying factor than other types of violence. The results suggest that a country’s homicide rate reflects, to a large extent, the tendency of its offenders to use firearms.

What Do Corruption Indices Measure?

Evidence from the International Crime Victimization Survey and the World Business Environment Survey suggests that actual corruption experience is a weak predictor of reported corruption perception, and that some of the factors commonly found to “reduce” corruption, such as economic development, democratic institutions or Protestant traditions, systematically bias corruption perception indices downward from corruption experience. In addition, perception indices are influenced by absolute (as opposed to relative) levels of corruption, which tends to penalize large countries, and they exhibit diminishing sensitivity to both absolute and relative corruption, indicating that they may better capture differences among countries with low levels of corruption than among highly corrupt ones. Individual characteristics such as education, age, or employment status, and firm‐level characteristics such as the number of competitors are also found to influence corruption perceptions holding experience constant.

The Crime Drop and the General Social Survey

Most indicators including Uniform Crime Reports and the International Crime Victims Survey suggest that Canada has experienced a dramatic “crime drop” similar to other advanced countries. Yet Canada’s General Social Survey (GSS), which ought to be the most methodologically sophisticated measure, suggests crime in this country has been stable or increasing. This study reviews the evidence. It concludes with the hypothesis that the GSS trends are misleading but that further research is needed to identify an explanation for this anomaly. Potential research and policy implications are discussed.

The International Crime Victims Surveys

The International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) has been carried out six times over the period 1989–2010. Although national and city samples are relatively small, the ICVS is a unique survey of the experience of being victimized in that it is standardized and far-reaching: it has been conducted in more than 80 countries in different regions of the world, with many countries having taken part more than once. This paper focuses not on the methodology of the survey but on four important areas of analysis that capitalize on the comparative nature of the ICVS, and its ability to look at victimization experience at the level of both individuals and countries. Firstly, it looks at the level of crime in different countries according to the ICVS, compared to the picture from police figures. It shows some distinct differences. Also taken up is how far the correlates of victimization risk are similar across countries, and whether the phenomenon of repeat victimization holds constantly. A special focus is on results from a multi-level analysis of the relationships between firearm ownership as measured by the ICVS and rates of serious violent crime victimization at the individual and national levels. The second focus of the paper concerns what ICVS measures of trends in crime show relative to trends in police figures. It looks here, too, at the relationships between the level of household security in different countries as shown by the ICVS and trends in property crime. The third focus is on victims reporting crime to the police and their level of satisfaction with the police response, as well as the provision of and need for specialized victim assistance, underlining the importance of the ICVS as an instrument to monitor the implementation of international standards on victims’ rights, and to benchmark national victim policies. The fourth focus of the paper is on attitudes towards crime and criminal justice, looking in particular at similarities and differences across country populations. One feature is a multi-level analysis of the social correlates of public attitudes towards punishment, in particular differentiating between victims and non-victims. The paper ends with some comment on the prospects for the ICVS in the future.

Revisiting the Gun Ownership and Violence Link: A Multilevel Analysis of Victimization Survey Data

The link between gun ownership victimization by violent crime remains one of the most contested issues in criminology. Some authors claim that high gun availability facilitates serious violence. Others claim that gun ownership prevents crime. This article revisits these issues using individual and aggregate data on gun ownership and victimization from the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS). Analysis at country level shows that the level of handgun ownership is positively related to serious violence but not for less serious violent crimes. Multilevel analyses on the data from 26 developed countries show that owners of a handgun show increased risk for victimization by violent crime. High ownership levels, however, seem to diminish the victimization level for the less serious violent crimes for the non-owners. Language: en

Crime and Justice in Cambodia

This chapter provides an overview of crime and the criminal justice system in Cambodia. After a brief review of the history and politics of the country the chapter examines the major crime categories, patterns, and statistics. The number of crimes recorded by the police for each category between 1998 and 2009 and the trends in homicide rates between 1992 and 2009 are presented. Official crime statistics are compared with results from two sweeps of the United Nations International Crime Victim Survey. Next the criminal justice system is investigated. The lack of independence and the endemic corruption in the three branches of the system are highlighted. The role, structure, and functioning of the police and judiciary are explored with a focus on courts and procedures, the rights of the accused, prosecution and case investigation, as well as punishment for serious crimes such as murder, rape, robbery, and drug trafficking. The chapter also reviews common practices and problems in the correctional system and presents trends in prison population between 1995 and 2008.

Hong Kong United Nations International Crime Victim Survey: Final Report of the 2006 Hong Kong UNICVS

This report presents the findings of the 2006 Hong Kong United Nations International Crime Victim survey. This was the first time the UNICVS was conducted in Hong Kong SAR China. For this reason, no trends in crime over time are available but where appropriate, the results are compared with those of other main cities in the developed and the developing world. The report shows crime victimization rates for ten types of common crimes: car theft, theft from car, household burglary and attempted burglary, robbery, personal theft, assault, and sexual victimization. In addition, the report examines non-conventional crimes such as corruption and bribery, and consumer fraud. A unique feature of the Hong Kong UNICVS is a set of questions on cyber victimization. The report also presents information on other topics related to criminal justice such as reporting to the police and the police response to victimization, fear of crime, crime prevention measures, and opinions about police and sentencing. Hong Kong’s residents attitudes to restorative justice and victims’ participation in the justice process are also examined. In 2006, the Hong Kong government conducted its regular Crime Victim Survey. This provides a unique opportunity to compare the results of the CVS and the UNICVS, and assess the ways in which different methodologies impact on the results of crime victimization surveys.

Gun utopias? Firearm access and ownership in Israel and Switzerland

The 2011 attempted assassination of a US representative renewed the national gun control debate. Gun advocates claim mass-casualty events are mitigated and deterred with three policies: (a) permissive gun laws, (b) widespread gun ownership, (c) and encouragement of armed civilians who can intercept shooters. They cite Switzerland and Israel as exemplars. We evaluate these claims with analysis of International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) data and translation of laws and original source material. Swiss and Israeli laws limit firearm ownership and require permit renewal one to four times annually. ICVS analysis finds the United States has more firearms per capita and per household than either country. Switzerland and Israel curtail off-duty soldiers' firearm access to prevent firearm deaths. Suicide among soldiers decreased by 40 per cent after the Israeli army's 2006 reforms. Compared with the United States, Switzerland and Israel have lower gun ownership and stricter gun laws, and their policies discourage personal gun ownership.

Prior Victimization, Region, and Neighborhood Effects on Fear of Crime in Mumbai, India

Research in Western countries has found that prior victimization, region, and neighborhood effects, such as high population density, residential instability and low social cohesion as well as related characteristics such as litter, public drunkenness, and abandoned storefronts, are all significant predictors of fear of crime. The present study examined the extent to which these factors were associated with predicting fear of crime in one of the fastest growing economies in the world – India. Data from the International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS), conducted under the auspices of the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Institute, suggest that, similar to findings from Western literature (with the exception of car theft and burglary), prior victimization is strongly related to fear of crime. However, contrary to findings from the Western literature, fear of crime appeared to be stronger among the middle classes than among the lower and higher classes. Moreover, limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Individual-Level Predictors of Perceived Safety: Data from an International Sample

This article compares individual characteristics of people residing in different global regions and how they affect a person's perceived risk of victimization. Prior research has extensively explored perceived risk of victimization, but few studies have been able to research the issue cross-nationally. The International Crime Victimization Survey data are used to explore perceived risk of victimization among those who reside in different global regions. This study explores the individual-level characteristics to determine whether this set of variables explains a person's perception of risk while out after dark. Results of the ordered logistic analysis show that gender, age, living in an urban residence, having previously been a victim, and socioeconomic status affect perceived risk but that effects differ by global region.

Exploring the international decline in crime rates

This paper examines aggregate crime trends and variation around them from 1988 to 2004 for 26 countries and five main crime types using data from the International Crime Victims Survey. Multilevel statistical analysis is used to identify the main trends. Major drops in crime were experienced in many countries from the early to mid-1990s onwards. The current analysis estimates that between 1995 and 2004, the mean international crime incidence reductions were: 77.1 percent in theft from cars, 60.3 percent in theft from person, 26.0 percent in burglary, 20.6 percent in assault and 16.8 percent in car theft. The study results suggest that, with the exception of burglary, all examined crime types fell by roughly the same rate across countries. The sample’s small number of countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia experienced even steeper reductions in burglary than occurred in Europe, North America and Australia.

Evaluation of international corruption indexes: Should we believe them or not?

In this paper, we employ, and test the reliability and validity, of multiple corruption related datasets such as the Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International, the Control of Corruption Index of the World Bank, the International Country Risk Guide of PRS, the World Value Survey, the Bribe Payers Index, and the International Crime Victimization Survey. We find evidence that the reliability of international corruption indexes has improved over the years. However, a number of shortcomings – such as the risk of selection bias, longitudinal sensitivity, and measurement errors that are inherent in composite indexes – are commonly observed. These problems are critical enough to affect the results of empirical analysis, as we illustrate using linear models. Therefore, we conclude that researchers should pay more attention towards minimizing the impact of measurement error through rigorous data screening and robustness tests using multiple data sources and methods. A thorough and systematic evaluation of the reliability and validity of international corruption indexes is essential to increase their usefulness.

Self-reported youth delinquency in Europe and beyond: First results of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study in the context of police and victimization data

This article reports on the first results of the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-2), a large international collaborative study of delinquency and victimization of 12—15-year-old students. The analysis is based on a subsample of the data set: 43,968 respondents from 63 cities and 31 countries. The prevalence rates of the major categories of delinquency, both for individual countries as well as for 6 country clusters, are presented as well as data for victimization experiences (theft and robbery/extortion). Using different measures, significant differences in level and type of offending are found between country clusters, with the Western European and Anglo-Saxon countries generally (but not always) scoring highest, followed by Northern Europe, Latin American and Mediterranean countries, with post-socialist countries at the bottom. The results for victimization experiences do not follow this pattern. The second part of the article compares ISRD-2 offending and victimization rates with two other main sources of internationally available crime-related statistics: International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS) data and European Sourcebook (i.e. police-based) data. The analyses show a moderate level of support for a convergence of different measures. The article concludes with implications and suggestions for further research.

The Utility of Country Structure: A Cross-National Multilevel Analysis of Property and Violent Victimization

Routine activities and lifestyle theories focus on the opportunities that lead to victimization experience. Routine activities theory considers a micro- and macro-level approach to understanding victimization, which suggests the utility of this theory in cross-national research. However, few cross-national studies applying a routine activities framework address both the individual and structural levels of analysis. Additionally, much research adhering to this theoretical perspective does not distinguish between instrumental and expressive crimes. Because of these limitations, the full explanatory value of the theory has not been adequately explored. In this study, the author focuses on a cross-national multilevel analysis of violent and property victimization across 47 developed and developing nations. The author uses the International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) and the European Survey on Crime and Safety (EU ICS) for individual-level measures and incorporates information on country structure from sources including the United Nations, World Bank, and the International Labor Organization. The results indicate individual-level measures of routines and lifestyles are differentially related to expressive and instrumental victimization, and these relationships maintain significance when structural opportunity measures are considered. Moreover, the measures of structural opportunity as captured by the level of development, sex ratio, and female employment are differentially associated with violent and property victimization.

International Crime Victim Survey 2005: Criminal Victimization in Istanbul Households

This study aimed to explore the nature of criminal victimization in Istanbul. Face-to-face interviews were conducted using the standard ICVS questionnaire to a randomly selected sample of 1242 householders. Five-year victimization rates were found to be the highest for burglary and attempted burglary. One-year victimization rates for these two types of criminal victimization were higher than those for other European cities. It was found that rates of reporting the offenses to the police in Istanbul were comparably lower than in other European cities. Fear of crime was found to be comparably higher. The findings from Istanbul were discussed in the light of the international results.

Crime Reporting Decisions and the Costs of Crime

The paper develops a model of crime reporting based on an economic approach. It identifies the principal costs and benefits of reporting from the victim’s perspective, taking account of insurance provision and the risk of intimidation by an offender. It shows how a victim might use backward induction to infer a rational reporting strategy. The recording of crime by the police is a process that relies on victim reports, and is thus influenced by the reporting decisions made by victims. The paper uses empirical evidence from the British Crime Survey and from the International Crime Victims Survey to explore the hypotheses generated by the model. It finds support for the suggestion that the propensity to report a crime increases with the size of the loss entailed. The paper also explores the implications of the findings for the estimation of the costs of crime. Reporting and intimidation costs are generally excluded from bottom-up estimates of costs, an omission that may be quite serious in the context of offences such as domestic violence.

Democracy, Inequality, Modernization, Routine Activities, and International Variations in Personal Crime Victimization

Using the International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS), this study investigates the relative contribution of macro-level variables (democracy level, modernization, world system status, and inequality) and individual-level variables (marital status, age, gender, education, income) in predicting the occurrence and intensity of personal crime victimization. The analysis utilizes multilevel regression, which controls for the ‘‘nesting’’ of individuals living in the same nation and controls for unmeasured random effects among the 42 nations under study. The results of the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) regression analysis indicate that individual characteristics are better predictors of both the occurrence and intensity of personal crime victimization than are macro-level variables related to political and economic conditions of nations. Findings of the current study diverge from those of previous international studies that used official crime data.