You asked about violent crime rates in Connecticut, other states, and the nation; violent crime rates in states with “three strikes” laws; and crime rates in the U.S. and other countries.

SUMMARY

The FBI collects crime data from the states as part of the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The most recent data available is from 2006. Based on this data, the rate of violent crime in Connecticut was 280.8 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. Of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Connecticut's violent crime rate ranks 38^th . The District of Columbia had the highest rate at 1,508.4 and Maine had the lowest rate at 115.5. The national average was 473.5.

Attached is a recent OLR Report on trends in crime in Connecticut (2008-R-0082).

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 25 states have “three strikes” type laws. Using the 2006 UCR data, only four of these states had lower violent crime rates than Connecticut.

It is difficult to compare crime rates between the United States and other countries for a number of reasons, including differences in criminal justice systems, rates at which crimes are reported by victims and recorded by police, crime reporting systems and counting methods, definitions, and data quality. Any comparisons that rank countries should keep these difficulties in mind.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime conducts crime surveys. The most recent survey that includes data from the United States is from 2002. Of the 50 countries responding to this survey, Iceland had the highest crime rate at 21,211.97 recorded crimes per 100,000 inhabitants and Nepal had the lowest at 36.78 recorded crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. Among these 50 countries, the U.S. ranked 17^th with 4,118.76 recorded crimes per 100,000 inhabitants.

Another way to look at the prevalence of crime is to look at crime victim surveys. The Criminal Victimization in International Perspective (Jan van Dijk, John van Kesteren, and Paul Smit, 2007) states that “levels of recorded crimes cannot be reliably used for comparing levels of common crime across countries. Crime victim surveys seem a better source of information on levels of crime across countries.” Looking at one year crime prevalence rates for 30 countries for 2003/04, the report states that the U.S. is near average among these countries.

VIOLENT CRIME RATE IN CONNECTICUT, OTHER STATES, AND THE U.S.

The FBI collects crime data from the states as part of the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The most recent data available is from 2006. The UCR classifies the following crimes as violent crimes: murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

Table one displays the violent crime rate per 100,000 inhabitants in each of the states and the District of Columbia for 2006. It also shows the national crime rate. The table ranks the states from highest crime rate to lowest.

Table 1: Violent Crime Rate Per 100,000 Inhabitants in 2006 by State,

Ranked from Highest to Lowest

VIOLENT CRIME RATE IN STATES WITH “THREE STRIKES” LAWS

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 25 states have “three strikes” type laws. Using the data above from the 2006 UCR, we compiled Table 2 below which displays these 25 states, their violent crime rate per 100,000 inhabitants, and their ranking among all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Table 2: States with “Three Strikes” Type Laws, Violent Crime Rate

Per 100,000 Inhabitants, by State, 2006

CRIME RATE IN THE U.S. AND OTHER COUNTRIES

It is difficult to compare crime rates between the United States and other countries for a number of reasons, including differences in criminal justice systems, rates at which crimes are reported by victims and recorded by police, crime reporting systems and counting methods, definitions, and data quality. Any comparisons that rank countries should keep these difficulties in mind.

United Nations Survey

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime compiles a “Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems.” The Eighth Survey is the most recent one including information from the United States. It covers 2001-2002. Table 3 displays those countries that responded to the survey listed alphabetically.

Table 3: Total Recorded Crimes, By Nation, Rate Per 100,000 Inhabitants

Table 4 below uses this same information but lists the nations from highest to lowest based on the 2002 crime rate.

Table 4: 2002 Total Recorded Crimes, Ranked by Rate Per 100,000 Inhabitants

Criminal Victimization Surveys

Another way to look at the prevalence of crime is to look at crime victim surveys. The International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS) project began in 1989 to collect reliable crime statistics for international comparisons. Criminal Victimization in International Perspective (Jan van Dijk, John van Kesteren, and Paul Smit, 2007) states that “levels of recorded crimes cannot be reliably used for comparing levels of common crime across countries. Crime victim surveys seem a better source of information on levels of crime across countries.” Some of the reasons for this include that legal definitions of crimes differ, there is a large difference in willingness of the public to report crimes to police, and recording practices and rules vary greatly. ICVS conducts sample surveys of households with standard questions.

ICVS measures 10 common crimes that cover a large proportion of crimes experienced by households. These crimes include crimes involving cars, burglaries, robberies, thefts of personal property, sex offenses, and assaults and threats. But the survey does not include victimless crimes, which it states include drug crimes, white collar crime, driving under the influence, and illegal weapon possession. It also does not cover crimes when the victim is a company rather than a person. It also states that the comparatively small sample sizes used prevents estimates of less prevalent crimes. The report also states that different interviewing techniques used in different countries may impact data.

The report uses rates of victimization which are prevalence rates—the percentage of people age 16 and over who experienced a specific crime at least once during the period. The data does not provide the total number of incidents or incident rates per 100,000 population (although the report states that studies have found that ranking countries by prevalence rates are similar to rankings by incidence rates).

The report presents data from 30 countries including the majority of developing nations. It found that on average, an estimated 16% of the population in these countries had been a victim of at least one of any of ten common crimes in one year, mainly 2003 or 2004. Most of the countries with data available over time had a “distinct downward trend” in the level of victimization from 1995 or 2000.

Fifteen developed countries in the survey had information for an analysis over 10 to 15 years. The report states that the average for these countries shows the level of victimization peaked halfway through the 1990s and has had a slow, steady decline since. Victimization rates of nearly all individual countries showed the same pattern over the past 15 years.

The table below (copied from the report where it is labeled Figure 3), displays those countries with the top 15 victimization rates. The report states that the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Sweden are near average and they have dropped several places in the rankings in recent years.

The table below (copied from the report where it is labeled Figure 4), displays those countries with the bottom 15 victimization rates. The report states that eight countries have victimization levels significantly below the average and can be regarded as low crime countries: Spain, Japan, Hungary, Portugal, Austria, France, Greece, and Italy.

The report also found that victimization rates in North America, Australia, and the nine European countries where ICVS had data over time showed “distinct downward trends.” It found that the drop in U.S. rates was seen between 1988 and 1992 and in Europe, rates reached a plateau around 1995 with a steady decline in the following 10 years to 1990 levels. The report also found that the results show that trends in victimization “show very similar patterns in the majority of countries.”

CR:dw