Using Advances in International Statistics to Promote Cross

• In Event: International Efforts to Measure Crime and their Implications for Criminologists

Abstract

Cross-national comparisons of crime and criminal justice practices are invaluable for understanding the effects of policy and institutional context on crime. Nations present a wide variety of policies and practices as well as institutional contexts that cannot be found in a single state. Cross-national research on crime and policy depends on statistics that permit comparison. The efforts described in this panel move us in that direction, but it will be some time before that work reaches fruition. We should consider some intermediate strategies for demonstrating the utility of these data to inform both policy and practice. The Center of Excellence, UNODC and interested international organizations can identify crucial policy questions that may be informed by analysis. The Center can serve as a repository not only for the aggregate, national level statistics on crime and justice but also for the incident level data coming from administrative records and victimization surveys in nations around the world. A small grant program encouraging the use of these data to inform the policy questions identified would demonstrate both the utility and quality of these data.

Author

• James Patrick Lynch, University of Maryland