ABSTRACT
One of the most fundamental components within criminology and criminal justice is the assessment of risk: the risk of criminal victimization, the risk of recidivism, and the risk of repeat victimization, to name only a few. With regard to the general risk of criminal victimization, the crime rate is the most common measure employed. This rate is used to compare the risk of criminal victimization between neighborhoods, municipalities, provinces/states, and nations. But how useful is this measure for making these comparisons? The previous chapters have shown this in the context of neighborhoods, but other scales of analysis are also instructive.
