ABSTRACT
There is a widespread desire to establish the rate of crime across countries or jurisdictions. The benefit of such data is obvious. They can provide us with information on the relative effectiveness of certain measures against crime. In addition, we can study the relation between rates of crime and geographic, cultural or governmental variables. These variables can include population data, measures on wealth or economic conjuncture or type of government. Differences in crime rates between countries can give us insight into configurations of social control and other societal characteristics and work towards assessing their impact. In summary, comparative crime data can further our understanding of deviance and social control in a variety of ways and it is therefore no surprise that many studies, varying from the strictly local to the truly global have been conducted in order to capture differences and similarities between rates of crime.
