Crime > Total crimes: Countries Compared

The only thing statistics like this tell us is - the countries at the top of the list have effective police departements where crimes are reported and tracked. Based on the above graphs you can bet the countries at the top of the list are by and large safer than most countries lower down where the police are either corrupt, ineffective or crime is so common it is not tracked or reported.

At first glance, the United States appears to stand out in this statistic, having four times as many crimes as Germany which is next on the list. However this is misleading as the population of the United States is about four times as high as the population of Germany. As a country with a high population is likely to have more crime (there are more people to commit crimes), this statistic should br viewed <a href=/graph/cri_tot_cri_cap>per capita</a>. In per capita ranking, the United States falls to number 8, between the United Kingdom (No. 6)and Germany(No. 12).</p>

<p>Willingness to report crime and confidence in the police and legal system influence the rate of reported crime. Over half of U.S citizens feel that they can <a href=/graph/cri_rep_to_pol>report crime</a> to the police, and 73% have confidence in the <a href=/graph/lif_con_in_soc_ins_pol&int=-1>police</a> and the <a href=http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lif_con_in_soc_ins_leg_sys&int=-1>legal system</a>. In addition to this, the United States has the highest ranking for belief in <a href=http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_bel_in_pol_eff>police efficiency</a> with 89% of respondents stating that the police do a good job in controlling crime in their area.</p>

In a wired world with news websites and 24-hour television news as well as traditional news sources like newspapers, news magazines and the radio, crime reports can make it seem like crime is constantly rising. But this may be a result of media saturation, rather than of increased crime. <p>The <a href=http://www.rainn.org/ncvs_2002.pdf>2002 National Crime Victimization Survey </a>conducted by the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that total violent victimization and property crime rates in the U.S. were lower that year than they had been any year since the survey started in 1973. Between 1993 and 2002, the violent crime rate declined 54 percent and the property crime rate decreased by 50 percent. <p> This decrease is even more dramatic when you consider that an estimated 49 percent of violent crimes and 40 percent of property crimes were reported to police. In 1993, reporting rates were estimated at 43 percent for violent crimes and 34 percent for property crimes.

markenoff
27th December 2012

"Compare the crime numbers with population:

US population 315,000,000 Crimes 12,000,000
UK population 63,000,000 Crimes 6,500,000
Geman population 82,000,000 Crimes 6,500,000
Canada population 35,000,000 Crimes 2,500,000

You do the math."

Throw some logic in while you're at it.

DEFINITION: Note: Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.

DEFINITION: Note: Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.

It would be nice to have this broken down by age. I am sure that you would find that if you wanted to find a criminal, you would find them faster if you looked for someone who hasn't gone through puberty yet. The more violent the crime, the more likely they are to have not gone through puberty but at least their victim will have not gone through puberty too. At least when children kill people, they usually kill other children. That would be fine with me if they would leave men and women alone.

Alex is correct. These figures are NOT incidents per 100,000 citizens as some readers have stated despite the fact that the U.S. lists over 11 MILLION incidents which would equate to about every fourth citizen committing a violent crime! When you divide the incidents of violent crime by the population the list changes dramatically. In order of Highest to Lowest crime rate: 1:Columbia, 2:U.K., 3:Iceland, 4:Mexico, 5:Montserrat, 6:Sweden, 7:New Zealand, 8:Finland, 9:Belgium, 10:Denmark, 11:Netherlands, 12:Germany, 13:Canada, 14:Norway, 15:Austria, 16:France, 17:S.Africa.
The U.S. is #27, a far cry from the number 1 position implied in this list.
Other than to make some sort of an ideological point villifying the United States I can't figure out why a misleading list like this would be published without qualifiers.
Wanna bet the same people who embrace this list for the ingenuous way it misrepresnts would denounce it when population is factored in to show the truth?

Actually the figures are total incidents, not adjusted for population. The crime rate in America is not 11.8m per 100,000 inhabitants ;)

Compare the crime numbers with population:

US population 315,000,000 Crimes 12,000,000
UK population 63,000,000 Crimes 6,500,000
Geman population 82,000,000 Crimes 6,500,000
Canada population 35,000,000 Crimes 2,500,000

You do the math.

The figures are incidents per 100,000 people, not the total number. It is a rate that is normalized across the different countries, so you can compare them without correcting for population. This has already been done. The US has the highest RATE of reported crime. Though, I don't believe the numbers come entirely from police reports. They mention that the figures also come from surveys, where crimes not reported to the police would still be included.

"The amount of guns people are killed by each day is the reason why our crime rates plus the amount of suicides and homicides happen a day/week/year. Everyone says that guns are needed to protect themselves but without guns you wouldn't have to. Guns are a easy and quick way for individuals to die. And giving everyone in america access to a gun will only make things worse. Every excuse for a murder i feel will be I was defending myself."

Wrong.

These are TOTAL numbers not percentages. The united states actually has a lower rate than Germany, UK, australia and most of Europe.

Easy access to a gun does not make someone not kill themselves or anyone else if they want to. In Mexico where guns are very strictly controlled or totally banned, look at the crime rate. Seems like the criminals have not problems getting guns, only law abiding citizens. Also the favored method of suicide in Mexico is hanging. Should they outlaw rope?

The amount of guns people are killed by each day is the reason why our crime rates plus the amount of suicides and homicides happen a day/week/year. Everyone says that guns are needed to protect themselves but without guns you wouldn't have to. Guns are a easy and quick way for individuals to die. And giving everyone in america access to a gun will only make things worse. Every excuse for a murder i feel will be I was defending myself.

Please take a moment to look at the bottom of the statistics... I think it sums all concerns up. "DEFINITION: Note: Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.

SOURCE: The Eighth United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2002) (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention)"

Singapore is safer than most advanced country, Khalis. For your information, this is already 2011, a decade has passed and it's enough time to decrease the crime rate. In case you're still living in the past. Stop complaining.

The biggest reason we have so much crime is that people know they will not be punished severely for their actions. Our country tends to lean on the fact our prisons are overcrowded and throwing more criminals in their is against there Constitutional rights because they have to share a room with four, six, and sometimes even eight other criminals. You tell me what is wrong with this picture.

Guess this figures are very reasonable, not because some countries keep records better or not. The breakdown is always there for u to see.

@Shane
if victim didnt got hurt that does Not mean that he was not mugged. so these statistics tells how much crime is happening in your country. 1 in every 25 people in US is a criminal.

@John
even if you double the crimes in third world countries it does not even come close to enough to crimes happening in developed countries.

UK: 1 in every 10 persons have committed a crime
USA: 1 in every 25
Saudi Arabia(3rd world country): 1 in every 320 persons!!

this proves a lot of things.

@Shane
Are you kidding? Of course crimes without violence are reported in America. You clearly have no knowledge of American law enforcement. In fact, in American law enforcement it is widely discussed that Great Britain has a non-homicide crime problem. Just like America has to realize it has a higher homicide problem, Britain has to accept it has a higher non-homicide crime problem, (and countries like Hungary and those in Scandinavia have to accept they have a higher suicide problem).
If anything the crimes reported in 3rd world countries are most suspect and the least reported.

Gernot: Blaming the high number of total crimes on the death penalty and lack of gun control is, in a word, silly.

Look at #2 on the list: The UK has very strict gun control (possession of a handgun anywhere is a minimum five-year prison sentence), and no death penalty.

And yet, we have five times their population and less than twice their number of crimes. Makes them more than twice as criminal as we are.

A compilation of statistics will have to take into account reported crimes. In a country with strong law enforcement, high crime-fighting budget and good technology, a significant proportion of crimes would be detected as opposed to a country which does not have these. This helps explain why USA tops the list.

Unfortunately America is full of crazy people who think that guns and violence are the answer. Their film industry has a lot to do with it, encouraging the idea that problems are solved by killing people. The US still has a death penalty which means that the official line is that killing people is OK.

The gun lobby is too powerful, and so everyone carries a gun, just as the junk food industry is too strong, and so the country is full of very fat people.

It's a tragedy.

Just as a note to all those claiming that USA got the highest because of the population, this isnt quite true, India and china have the majority when it comes to population, but still got a lower crime rate.
but the crime per capita is still more accurate though.

It would be nice to have this broken down by gender. I am sure that you would find that if you wanted to find a criminal, you would find them faster if you looked for someone with testicles. The more violent the crime, the more likely they are to have testicles but at least their victim will have had testicles too. At least when males kill people, they usually kill other males. That would be fine with me if they would leave women and children alone.

Yall are trippin. u know americans are crazy. big pop. or not. look at the strong sense of nationalism from all the commenters. stop getting so personal. chill. especially the person who was all like "yeah world". chill the hell out.

I dont know how much I rely on this data table.

Brazil doesnt even make the top 82 countries, having less crimes than countries such as Finland and Denmark, countries globally praised for their safety & well-being?
And even less than Montserrat that has 751 crimes.

As a Brazilian who is honored by our positive aspects but acknowledges our lack of infrastructure and bad use of govt money (as opposed to the countries above mentioned, for instance, I can safely assure one thing: We have more than 751 crimes per city/week...

No one else noted that this list is incomplete. There are high populated are missing. And this these numbers are only old and although American are good at killing, robbing, and felonious behaviour, the rest of the world is catching up. America's numbers are going down. Yeah world.