Criminal Victimization in Seventeen Industrialised Countries: Key Findings from the 2000 International Crime Victims Survey

• NCJ Number: 187198
• Author(s): John van Kesteren; Pat Mayhew; Paul Nieuwbeerta
• Date Published: February 2001
• Length: 224 pages
• Corporate Author: Netherlands Ministry of Justice
• Sale Source: Netherlands Ministry of Justice
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey (Cross-Cultural)
• Language: English
• Country: Netherlands
• Note: Downloaded from the WODC Website March 2, 2001

Annotation

This reports presents statistics on criminal victimization in the 17 industrialized countries that took part in the International Crime Victimization Survey in 2000.

Abstract

The countries were Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The survey collected data through interviews of standardized samples selected through variants of random-digit dialing. The overall response rate was 64 percent. Results revealed that more than 24 percent of the participants in Australia, England and Wales, the Netherlands, and Sweden were victimized once or more in the previous year by any of the 11 crimes covered by the survey. The victimization rate was 20-24 percent in Canada, Scotland, Denmark, Poland, Belgium, France, and the United States. The rates of crimes per 100 persons were highest in England and Wales, Australia, and the Netherlands. The risk of having a car stolen was highest in England and Wales, Australia, and France. The proportion of households with a completed or attempted burglary was highest in Australia (7 percent); England and Wales (5 percent); and Canada, Denmark, and Belgium (all 4 percent). The risk of contact crime through robbery, assaults with force, and sexual assaults against women were highest in Australia, England and Wales, Canada, Scotland, and Finland, where more than 3 percent were victims. Victims in different countries had similar ratings of the seriousness of different offenses and regarded automobile thefts where the car was not recovered as most serious, followed by sexual assaults. The survey also revealed a general hardening of attitudes toward punishment, with increasing proportions supporting imprisonment. Thirty-four percent of participants recommended imprisonment for a recidivist burglar aged 21. Figures, tables, footnotes, appended methodological information and tables, and 58 references