ABSTRACT
By any measure, Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a serious crime problem. Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently described PNG as “one of the more dangerous countries in the world not at war” (HRW, 2005).Up until the administration of several comprehensive community crime surveys, data on crime in PNG are highly unreliable (Findlay, Guthrie, Hukula, & Laki, 2004, 2005, 2006; Guthrie, Hukula, & Laki, 2006; Zveic & Alvassi del Frate, 1995; Sikani, 1999; Dinnen, 2002). What data exist indicate that violent crime is high and is proportionately greater than in many of Papua New Guinea’s Pacific neighbors (Dinnen, 2001, pp. 61-62; 2002).
