NCJ Number
218335
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Dated: Fall 2006 Pages: 209-234
Date Published
2006
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the correspondence between unofficial and official measures of cross-national crime for two nonviolent offenses.
Abstract
A strong correlation is found between the official measures of crime with an expanded sample, but the official data and victimization data were not consistently associated with one another regardless of sample size. Sample size and sample composition may explain this intriguing pattern. A small number of countries exerted a considerable influence on the findings when an expanded sample of countries was used. Future research using cross-national data must attend to the contextual features of the specific countries that they include in their research. In a comparison and analysis of two of the most prominent official cross-national crime datasets, Interpol and European Sourcebook, and the one major cross-national crime victimization survey, International Crime Victim Survey (ICVS), this paper sought to add to the body of empirical checks of cross-national crime data, to contribute to the evaluation of cross-national crime data at multiple points in time and to draw attention to the consequences of sample size and sample composition. This comparison and analysis were conducted in terms of their depiction of sexual assault, robbery, domestic burglary, and motor vehicle theft. This would allow for a better understanding of comparative crime data quality. Tables and references