Murder Rates (per 1 million people)
1st Columbia 618
2nd South Africa 496
3rd Jamaica 324
5th Russia 202
24th United States 43
30th Finland 28
40th France 17
60th Japan 5
Crime Rates (per 1 million people)
1st Dominica 114,000
2nd New Zealand 106,000
3rd Finland 102,000
4th Denmark 93,000
5th Child 88,000
6th United Kingdom 86,000
8th United States 80,000
10th South Africa 77,000
31st Russia 21,000
37th Jamaica 14,000
59th India 1,000
Columbia is the world leader in murder rates, with 618 murders for every million people. It is significantly high than South Africa, which is second. Jamaica and Venezuela are the next two with Russia the highest European country with 202 murders for every million. The number of murders in the United States has fallen to 43 per million, but figures for Eastern Europe has generally risen.
In many cases the trends differ for crime rates in general. Dominica has the most recorded crime followed by New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Chile and the United Kingdom.
Although Columbia has the highest murder rate it is not in the top 60 of general crime rates. This is similar with South Africa and Jamaica. These countries have a high amount of drug related crime (although often not reported and therefore not recorded); something that can often lead to disputes and therefore murder. A large proportion of crime in these countries could be attributed to this.
Murder rates are significantly higher in Eastern Europe than Western Europe. Over the last twenty years there has been much political unrest in Eastern Europe, and this is something that can cause crime.
Some countries have high crime rates that would surprise many. Countries that traditionally have had low crime, such as Finland, Denmark and Japan now have higher crime.
Western Europe generally has a low murder rate but a much higher general crime rate. One of the reasons for this could be that a higher percentage of crime is reported. There are also more laws relating to 'lesser' offenses. Speeding and littering, for example, are not illegal in many other areas of the world and it is therefore easier to break the law. Research generally shows that areas of wealth have less crime, and this could be another factor. In some ways New Zealand is similar to this. They have a high crime rate, but low murder rate, with a large proportion of crimes being minor ones.
The United States murder rate has fallen significantly, but overall crime remains relatively high, much like Western Europe. Murder is still more common though, with the fact that guns are legal and easily obtainable likely to be a contributing factor. Violent crime has been reduced though, and this is partly due to greater effort being made by the authorities. New York is a good example of this, with crime rates, and especially violent crime having fallen by a large margin over the last ten to fifteen years.
Crime rates are extremely low in India and China. Some would argue that these areas have high morals and therefore lower crime. You could also argue though, that there are more severe punishments for crime, and therefore it is less worth the risk.
Andrew Marshall ©
Statistics from http://www.nationmaster.com
