Experiences of crime across the world

Abstract

This report bas presented resuits from an international research project in which surveys were conducted with representative samples of national populations of people aged 16 years or more about their experiences of crime. The surveys took place in the early part of 1989. fourteen countries, in and out of Europe, conducted surveys which were fully standardized as regards sampling metliod, method of interview, and questions asked. The suwey provides unique comparative information about people’s experience of crime. It gives a measure of the extent of criminal victimization which is independent of that based on statistics of offences recorded by the police. These statistics enumerate only crimes reported to, and recorded by the police, and have been found difficult to use for comparative purposes. The survey also collected from respondents in each country comparative information about their responses to crime.