NCJ Number
188257
Date Published
1999
Length
147 pages
Annotation
This study is a comparative analysis of homicide rates in Scotland and England and Wales over a 10-year period from 1985 to 1994.
Abstract
This report attempted to explain the apparent difference between the homicide rate in Scotland compared with the rate in England and Wales from 1985 to 1994. The report looked at whether the difference was due to the different recording policies and practices of the two jurisdictions, where the differences were more precisely located, and where the beginnings of an explanation of the differences became identifiable. Differences in reporting policies and practices led to the inconsistency in crime victimization studies that show Scotland with a comparatively low violence victimization rate and England and Wales with a low homicide rate and high violence victimization rate. Violence victimization rates were used from the 1996 British Crime Survey and the 1996 Scottish Crime Survey. Highlighted findings included: (1) when taking into account the effect identified by the differences of procedure, the differences in the homicide rates did appear to shrink; (2) the male victimization rate in Scotland is over twice the rate for England and Wales and the female victimization rate in Scotland is very similar to the rate of England and Wales; (3) homicides using the methods of sharp instrument, blunt instrument, and hitting or kicking occured more often in Scotland, rates of homicides using other methods were similar in the two jurisdictions; (4) in the decade under study, Scotland always had a significantly higher homicide rate than England and Wales, but it became a much greater difference in the 1990's; (5) as measured by the crime surveys, the violence victimization rates in England and Wales were higher than those in Scotland for domestic, acquaintance and stranger violence, for both male and female victims; and (6) there was less danger of being a victim of homicide in England and Wales than in Scotland, but for other types of violence, males in England and Wales were at greater risk. The report recommended the need to determine the crucial factors that produce the higher conversion of violence into homicide in Scotland, in contrast to England and Wales comparatively low homicide rate. The report also recommended that the homicide databases used in the study collect data that offered a more complete understanding of homicide and violence. References, appendices, and tables