NCJ Number
198022
Journal
Criminology Volume: 40 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2002 Pages: 769-800
Date Published
November 2002
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This study tested for "crime booms," defined as crime rates that increase rapidly and exhibit a positive sustained change in direction, in homicide victimization rates for 34 nations from 1956 to 1998.
Abstract
Based on prior research, this study developed three competing perspectives about the frequency of "crime booms" among nations in the post-World War II period. A constructionist perspective (Fishman, 1978; Hall et al., 1978; and Kappeler et al., 1996) suggests that crime booms are socially constructed and that true booms are rare or nonexistent. A modernization perspective (Inkeles and Smith, 1974; Neuman and Berger, 1988; Shelley, 1981) asserts that crime booms are specialized results of the rapid social change experienced by nations that are in transition from traditional to modern forms of organization. A globalization perspective (Gurr, 1989; Gurr et al,. 1977; and Fukuyama, 1999) suggests that global changes since World War II have made national crime booms a nearly universal phenomenon. The current study used annual homicide victimization data for the 34 nations over the years of the study period to test these 3 perspectives. The results provide considerable support for the modernization perspective; i.e., crime booms in the postwar period were most common in industrializing nations in the sample; however, modernization perspectives cannot explain why some industrialized nations had crime booms and some industrializing nations did not. 3 tables, 4 figures, 86 references, and appended classification of homicide trends as unit root or stationary, 1956 to 1998