ABSTRACT
This chapter compares crime rates in Sweden with those in United States and United Kingdom. In all three countries, urban crime rates are higher than rural ones, regardless of definitions of crime types and how rural areas are conceptualized. The chapter discusses evidence about the so-called “convergence hypothesis” of urban and rural crime rates. Crime victimization disproportionately affects more urban than rural residents, regardless of crime trends, country, or differences in rural–urban contexts. Urban areas are often more criminogenic than rural areas not because they concentrate lots of people per area but because urban areas offer more opportunities for crime than rural ones do. This assumption is particularly true for property crimes. Robbery, regarded as a violent offense, seems to follow the trend for violent crimes more than the trend for property offenses. Levitt presents the percentage decline in homicide, violent crime, and property crime from 1991 to 2001 by region in the United States, urban–rural, and city size.
