Overall crime statistic comparisons are difficult to conduct, as the definition of crimes significant enough to be published in annual reports varies across countries. Thus an agency in a foreign country may include crimes in its annual reports which the United States omits. Some countries such as Canada, however, have similar definitions of what constitutes a violent crime, and nearly all countries had the same definition of the characteristics that constitutes a homicide. Overall the total crime rate of the United States is similar to that of other highly developed countries. Reported property crime in the US is actually lower than in Germany or Canada, yet the homicide rate in the United States is substantially higher. There were 17,034 murders in the United States in 2006[29] (666,160 murders from 1960 to 1996).[30] Interestingly enough, the overall violent crime rate in the United States was roughly half that of Canada, despite its homicide rate being 189.5% higher; note from the references, however, that the US violent crime rate includes only Aggravated Assault, whereas the Canadian violent crime rate includes all categories of assault, including the much-more-numerous Simple Assault (i.e., assault not using a weapon and not resulting in serious bodily harm).[6][31] According to a recent study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, where crime figures were adjusted for international comparison, the United States had a lower overall burglary rate than Scotland, England, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia. The other two countries included in the study, Sweden and Switzerland, had only slightly lower burglary rates.[28]
“ "Due to the difficulties of comparing national crime trends between countries some of the data included in this report may be adjusted or estimated. This is because of differences in measuring crimes and definitions of crime type. The report does however state clearly which pieces of data have been adjusted and why."-David P. Farrington, Patrick A. Langan, Michael Tonry (Bureau of Justice Statistics), 2004[28] ”
Despite the overall crime rate of the United States being seemingly in line with that of other industrialized countries, its homicide rate, which has declined substantially since 1991, is still among the highest in the industrialized world. Comparing just homicide rates by themselves, however, may not be representative of the overall crime rate of a country. Only the homicide rate of Northern Ireland in the early 1990s compares to that of the United States today. In 2004, there were 5.5 homicides for every 100,000 persons, compared to 1.9 in Canada and 1.0 in Germany.[31] This means that the homicide rate in the United States was nearly three times as high as in Canada and slightly more than five times as high as in Germany.[6][32] Most industrialized countries had homicide rates below the 2.5 mark. Overall the homicide rate in the United States was similar to that of some lesser developed Eastern European countries.[33][34][35]
Country Ireland[36] Norway[36] Germany[31] United Kingdom[36] France[36] Canada[6] United States[7] Russia[36] Venezuela[36] Jamaica[36] South Africa[36] Colombia[36]
Homicide rate 0.9 1.0 1.0 1.4 1.6 1.9 5.5 20.15 31.61 32.41 49.60 61.78
Year 2000 2000 2004 2000 2004 2004 2004 2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
Where there is a marked disparity between the incidence of crime in the US and all other comparable developed countries is in the per capita rate of murder committed with firearms. The most recent data show that the proportion of Americans killed by firearms is more than three and a half times greater than the next country of comparable development (Portugal.)[37] The proportion of Americans killed by firearms per year is more than seven and a half times greater than the comparable proportion of residents in the 10 developed countries with the next highest rates of firearm homicides.[38]
SOURCES: US Bureau of Justice Statistics (2004),[7] Bundeskriminalamt, BKA (2004),[31] Canada Statistics (2004),[6] Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (2000)[36]